The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance broke securities rules by selling its BNB token during its initial coin offering (ICO) five years ago.

New cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been launched on the Cboe Australia exchange, bringing the total amount of crypto ETFs available to Australian traders to six.

Long-term Bitcoin HODLers are sitting on their largest losses since March 2020 and the 2018-2019 bear market. The aggregated realized losses for long-term Bitcoin holders exceeded 0.006% of the market capitalization, with historic patterns suggesting losses may continue.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• US Investigates Binance Over BNB ICO
• New Crypto ETFs Launch in Australia
• Long Term Bitcoin HODLer Losses Mount
• Chart of the Week: Bitcoin’s Weekly Price Action

US Investigates Binance Over BNB ICO

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance broke securities rules by selling its BNB token during its initial coin offering (ICO) five years ago.

Investigators are examining whether the 2017 initial coin offering was a sale of a security that should have been registered with the SEC. The SEC has over the last few years investigated numerous ICOs.

In a statement, Binance said it would “not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators,” adding these include “education, assistance, and voluntary responses to information requests.” The company added that it works with authorities and will keep on meeting “all requirements set by regulators.”

Beyond BNB, the regulator is also reportedly looking for possible trading abuses by Binance insiders and whether Binance.US, the company’s American affiliate formed in 2019, is appropriately separated from the exchange’s global counterpart.

New Crypto ETFs Launch in Australia

New cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been launched on the Cboe Australia exchange, bringing the total amount of crypto ETFs available to Australian traders to six.

The new ETFs include two spot ETFs from Canada-based 3iQ Digital Asset Management, the 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin Feeder ETF and the 3iQ CoinShares Ether Feeder ETF. Both ETFs feed from the firm’s Canadian ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The underlying assets of these Canadian ETFs are holdings of both BTC and ETH held in cold storage by Gemini. 3iQ’s new ETFs are launching along with Cosmos Asset Management’s new Ethereum ETF.

After joining forces with Canada’s Purpose Investments, the Cosmos-Purpose Ethereum Access ETF was listed on Cboe Australia, and invests directly in the Toronto-listed Purpose Ether ETF. The Canadian ETF holds physical ETH held by Gemini.

Other Australian crypto ETFs include those of 21Shares, which also offer investors exposure to BTC and ETH, with both coins being held in reserves in cold storage managed by Coinbase.

Long Term Bitcoin HODLer Losses Mount

Long-term Bitcoin HODLers are sitting on their largest losses since March 2020 and the 2018-2019 bear market. The aggregated realized losses for long-term Bitcoin holders exceeded 0.006% of the market capitalization, with historic patterns suggesting losses may continue.

The aggregated realized losses metric is calculated by measuring the value of BTC deposited on cryptocurrency exchanges, and reached a peak of 0.015% of the market capitalization during the 2018-2019 bear market.

According to on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, aggregated realized losses for long-term holders now resemble those from previous bear markets, but need to continue for a longer period of time to be comparable.

A long-term holder is defined by Glassnode as a Bitcoiner that hasn’t moved their coins for at least 155 days.

Chart of the Week: Bitcoin’s Weekly Price Action

This week’s Chart of the week shows that since March 27, Bitcoin has achieved nine consecutive weekly red candles, a first in its history.

The cryptocurrency’s downturn has been influenced by several macroeconomic factors, including the war in Ukraine and rising inflation which have seen investors move away from risk assets.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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