Bitcoin and Ether Turn Lower After SEC Moves Against Robinhood

Grayscale’s GBTC saw net inflows on Friday for the first time since converting into an ETF.

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Crypto markets ticked lower on Monday after the SEC issued a Wells notice to Robinhood regarding its crypto operations.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is trading at around $63,500 — a 1% drop over the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) dipped under $3,100, and Dogecoin (DOGE) climbed by 0.1%.

Bucking the trend, Solana (SOL) is up 5% on the day.

In a Monday report, Joel Kruger, an LMAX Group market analyst, said that Bitcoin's recovery to a bullish weekly close “sets up the possibility [of] the next higher low.”

Meanwhile, CoinGlass data shows that BTC gained 4.8% in May, effectively cutting overall second-quarter losses to less than 10%. In the last 24 hours, total liquidations amounted to $161 million.

Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF finally broke its streak of daily outflows, attracting over $63 million from investors on Friday. This marks a turnaround after almost four months of continuous outflows following its conversion to a spot ETF structure in January.

GBTC Daily Flows chart — GBTC Daily Flows

Stock markets rally

The latest United States employment figures boosted risk assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.4%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained nearly 0.6%.

According to the government's Nonfarm Payrolls report released Friday morning, the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in April, falling short of forecasts for 243,000 jobs and well below March's 315,000.

Michael Van de Poppe, a crypto analyst, said there is a possibility of quantitative easing (QE) making a comeback – a move towards the Fed increasing available liquidity.

“Very significant chance that most of the pain is already in for Altcoins,” he said. “Upcoming week is going to be an interesting one, likely we'll see some more upward momentum as Friday showed the way for the Dollar & Bitcoin with terrible economic data. QE is coming soon.”

Quantitative easing (QE) by the Federal Reserve is a monetary policy tool in which the central bank purchases securities, such as government bonds, to increase the money supply and encourage lending and investment. This tends to boost market liquidity and asset prices.