Cryptos take a breather; Bitcoin approaches $31,000

The queen cryptocurrency has managed to approach $31,000 again, after BlackRock and other entities such as Fidelity or ARK Invest filed a second application to register a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). It should be recalled that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has been rejecting this type of investment products for more than a decade, denied the first application of these companies as it considered them to be "unclear" and "incomplete".

This episode has been the main catalyst for the market and has led the queen cryptocurrency to test the upper end of the range between $30,000 and $31,000 in which it has been moving in recent weeks. Since learning of BlackRock's intentions in mid-June, BTC has managed to rally comfortably above 20% as market watchers not only believe it has a good chance of receiving regulatory approval, but that this approval could come before the end of the summer.

However, there´s not many new events in the cryptocurrency space. Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, stressed that the reigning cryptocurrency continues to "fluctuate largely between $30,000 and $31,000". For the expert, the consolidation of these prices "may feel encouraging to the crypto community after such a powerful rally a couple of weeks ago."

"While it hasn't managed to capitalize any further, that it hasn't given back a portion of those gains gives the impression that traders think there's more to come and that this is merely a period of consolidation amid a bigger move. Time will tell whether that turns out to be the case and news flow may have a big part to play in the outcome but what we've seen so far is encouraging," he added.

On the corporate side, Gemini has issued an ultimatum to bankrupt crypto-lender Genesis to agree to a debt restructuring plan and meet obligations of nearly $1.5 billion incurred mostly by Gemini Earn. If the company does not agree to the proposed roadmap by tomorrow, on Thursday, Gemini will sue Digital Currency Group, parent of Genesis, and its CEO, Barry Silbert.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom has gotten a step closer to passing its Economic Crime and Business Transparency Act. Yesterday, on Tuesday, the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament, approved the text, which will expand the powers of the country's law enforcement agencies to seize and freeze cryptocurrencies used to commit crimes in the UK. The Lords' approval means that the bill returns to the House of Commons to be debated and voted on before being signed into law.

On a macroeconomic scale, there is some skepticism among Asian investors following the more than possible appointment of Pan Gongsheng as the new head of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the Asian giant's central bank, according to reports in 'The Wall Street Journal' and the 'South China Morning Post'.

Neil Thomas, a China policy specialist at the Asia Society Policy Institute's China Analysis Center, called the appointment of Pan, who had not been appointed to the Communist Party's Central Committee, its highest decision-making body, at the last congress in October, a "surprise." "My initial reaction is this suggests Xi (Jinping) is more concerned about China’s economy than before the 20th Party Congress," he explained in statements to 'CNN'.

But how does this affect cryptocurrencies? Pan is a well-known critic of these digital assets and supported the banning of cryptos in China in 2021. According to 'Bloomberg', at an event he attended in 2017 he assured, paraphrasing Sun Tzu, that "if you sit by the river long enough, you will see the corpse of Bitcoin pass by". Pan's ascent to the PBOC throne could put a brake on the rumored Chinese opening in the field of cryptocurrencies and who knows if it could slow down or even reverse the advances that have taken place in Hong Kong.

In other market news, there have been falls among the main altcoins. However, on the positive side of the balance, rises of 0.5% in Dogecoin (DOGE) and Solana (SOL) stand out.