(Bloomberg) — Major cryptocurrencies rose on Thursday after Ripple Labs Inc. was ordered to pay a $125 million fine, a result the company called a victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Bitcoin rose as much as 4.5% to above $57,600, while Ether, the second-largest token, was up almost 5% at one point. Both tokens are still far below their levels from a week ago, following Monday’s drop in what was the market’s steepest since the days of FTX in 2022.
The development comes as a sell-off in global equities has intensified, reflecting concerns about the economic outlook and rising tensions in the Middle East, as well as fears that major investments in artificial intelligence may not pay off.
Benjamin Celermajer, co-chief investment officer at Magnet Capital, said markets were “very nervous after the events that occurred earlier this week.” “If there’s confidence building that the concern is overblown, I believe many people will think the markets are selling too hard,” he added.
Cryptocurrencies initially regained some of those losses on Tuesday, but that recovery quickly ended. Bitcoin was trading at $57,449 as of 11:03 a.m. in Singapore on Thursday, while Ether was trading at $2,457.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million fine, a fraction of the nearly $2 billion the SEC had sought. The regulator sued Ripple in 2020, accusing it of raising money by selling its XRP token without registering it as a security. XRP rose as much as 25% after the ruling.
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