The crypto market saw some pressure as the new month started, with investors contemplating the risks of the latest DeFi hack and a US federal court opinion on when to classify crypto assets as securities.
On Tuesday, bitcoin was 1.1% lower at $28,867.96, ending July with a 3.93% drop. Ether, often seen as a large cap, blue-chip trade in crypto, dropped by 1.4%, after finishing the previous month 3.35% lower. The weakness in Ethereum was likely due to the exploit in DeFi giant Curve.
Altcoins also fell due to a US court saying some crypto assets are securities regardless of the context in which they are sold. This opinion was contrary to an earlier ruling from the same district court that Ripple’s XRP may not be categorized as a security in all cases. XRP declined by 3%, while tokens linked to Solana, Cardano, and Polygon’s matic dropped by more than 2%, 1.75% respectively.
Other smaller coins, especially in the DeFi segment, were also in the red. CRV, the native token of Curve Finance, a stablecoin-focused decentralized exchange, dropped 2.8% in the last 24 hours. Aave, Compound, and Synthetix tokens were down 10%, 9%, and 7.3% respectively.
The decrease in bitcoin volumes from their recent highs was also noticed. Despite the digital asset’s price showing resilience this year, trading was confined to a tight range throughout July, neither surpassing the key level of $31,500 nor dipping below $25,200.
The initial enthusiasm for the Blackrock ETF was fading, according to Josh Gilbert, an analyst at investment firm eToro. He added that when bitcoin heads south, most altcoins go down too, and in this case, they were selling off further due to the Curve issue.