How the Actions of the SEC Impact Cryptocurrency Prices

The month of August has been, as usual, a volatile one for digital currencies of all kinds. Early in the month, the price of bitcoin and ethereum, as well as other digital tokens, dropped to some of the lowest levels of the year. BTC has since recovered and is now trading above $6,700; ETH is still floundering as of this writing, trading significantly below $300. In retrospect, many analysts have suggested that the reason for the drop across the cryptocurrency industry early in August had to do with the actions of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The price declines mentioned above corresponded with the announcement that the SEC had decided to postpone its verdict on the approval of a bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) until the end of September.

This example is the latest of many cases in which the actions of the SEC seem to have impacted the prices of digital currencies. Indeed, over the past couple of years as digital tokens have become increasingly…