• The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization fell 3.6% overnight after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Binance.
• Altcoins, such as PepeCoin (PEPE), dropped by 14.9%.
• However, after rebounding, PEPE is now up 13%, while Bitcoin and Ethereum have both also recovered from their losses.
SEC Files Lawsuit Against Binance
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a new lawsuit against Binance for allegedly breaching the law by failing to prevent Americans from using their website, Binance.com, and acting as an unlicensed exchange, broker, and clearing house in the crypto market. This news caused a 3.6% drop in the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization overnight according to CMC statistics.
Altcoin Price Drop
Altcoins suffered more than Bitcoin or Ethereum with drops of 5%-15%. PepeCoin (PEPE) had the largest daily loss at 14.9%, while Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 4.2% and Ethereum (ETH) fell 3.1%.
Tether’s Supply Expands
The SEC labeled three metaverse tokens – SAND, MANA, and AXS – as unregistered securities; this news saw Tether’s USDT gain a $12 billion boost in its market worth due to investors switching away from high-risk altcoins towards low-risk currencies like USDT.
PepeCoin Rebounds 13%
At the time of writing prices of PEPE has rebounded and is up by 13% in the last 24 hours as per CMC; other altcoins have also changed direction and are now trading in green alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum.