Crypto Markets Tumble as SEC Rejects Winklevoss Twins’ Second Bitcoin ETF Application

Crypto markets have taken a sharp downturn, today, July 27, with all of the top ten coins by market cap hit by hefty losses and Bitcoin (BTC) dipping back below the $8,000 psychological price point, as data from Coin360 shows.

The grim market picture is likely due to yesterday’s breaking news that the Winklevoss Twins’ application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has now been rejected for a second time by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

(ETH) is trading around $462 at press time, down about 3 percent on the day. The altcoin took a similarly sharp plunge to Bitcoin, losing roughly $20 in value within 3 hours, and later dipping yet further to see a 24-hour low of around $459. Ethereum’s weekly price performance is now just shy of half a percent in the negative, but it’s monthly gains remain at a firm 6 percent

CoinMarketCap’s listings, all of the top 10 coins by market cap are down between 3 and 7 percent on the day.

Stellar (XLM) has seen the steepest loss of the top ten, 6.5 percent in the negative and trading around $0.305 to press time. Cardano (ADA) is down almost 7 percent, trading around $0.16 per coin, with IOTA (MIOTA) down around 5.4 percent at $0.98 and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) down almost 5 percent to trade at $802 to press time.

Of the top 20 coins on CoinMarketCap, VeChain — ranked 18th by market cap — has somehow been immunized from the declining fortunes of most crypto assets on the day. After a major surge yesterday to hit as high as $2.66, the token is still up around 13.5 percent today and is trading at around $2.36 to press time

Other simply consider that the SEC’s broadcasting of its concerns over vulnerabilities to market manipulation in an insufficiently sized regulated derivatives (futures) market will be “hard to overcome” –– it appears that these fears have been borne out by markets, at least in the immediate-short term.

Meanwhile, on July 24 the SEC delayed its decision on a Bitcoin ETF application from investment firm Direxion, the same day as digital asset manager Bitwise filed its own application with the regulator for an ETF that would track an index of ten cryptocurrencies.

Yesterday, the CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) said the institution would not be introducing futures on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin anytime soon, reiterating his earlier comments that it would be “a little irresponsible” to launch altcoin futures contracts given that they are still “highly volatile and new