Cryptocurrencies took a whack as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came after Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, once again.
Bitcoin lost 3.79% to US$25,779 and fell as low as US$25,625, trading around levels not seen since mid-March.
Ethereum shed 2.99% to US$1,814, changing hands at the lowest point since 26 May.
The SEC accused Binance and Zhao of being “engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure and calculated evasion of the law”.
“Big cryptocurrency institutions’ misfortune could shake the market, but the cryptocurrencies themselves remain impressively resistant to scandals in crypto exchanges, and price dips could be interesting opportunities to buy the assets,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
“In the medium run, rising interest rates pose a higher risk to cryptocurrency valuations than another crypto-exchange scandal,” she added.
Among some of the altcoins, Solana lost 7% to US$20.01, Litecoin shed 6.4% to US$87.45 and Cosmos fell by 6.1% to US$10.01.