Bitcoin (BTC) had a highly volatile trading session on Tuesday.
The benchmark cryptocurrency initially dropped below $45,000 before staging a recovery throughout the European trading window.
However, BTC/USD fell again when US markets got underway, with the pair eventually closing 180 basis points lower.
Bitcoin continued to cede ground this morning, with the BTC/USD pair shaving off 71 basis points to change hands for $45,796 at the time of writing.
A hacking of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s X/Twitter account encouraged some of this volatility.
The alleged hacker falsely claimed that the US securities regulator had approved the listing of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Major financial institutions including BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK), VanEck and Grayscale are eagerly awaiting word from the SEC on the status of their much-hyped ETFs.
“The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,” SEC boss Gary Gensler wrote on his private X account.
Nonetheless, the SEC is expected to make a genuine announcement on these applications this week.
Bitcoin remains 45% higher over six months – Source: tradingview.com
Second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) gained on bitcoin, having closed 60 basis points higher on Tuesday before ramping up another 1.3% to $2,376 this morning.
Bitcoin is still trumping ether on a long-term basis, with the ETH/BTC sliding nearly 20% in the past six months.
In the wider altcoin space, Solana (SOL), BNB, Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE) all fell in the low single digits overnight, while Avalanche (AVAX)’s losses extended to 9%.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.71 trillion, with bitcoin dominance slightly above 54%.