There is anticipation that the bill aiming to establish clear rules for digital assets will advance to voting later this week.
Bitcoin rose on Tuesday (13) in a context of expectations for regulatory changes that could favor the environment for cryptocurrencies. The changes, awaited since Donald Trump's election as President of the United States at the end of 2024, are seen as potential catalysts for higher prices of these assets, although they have been limited over the past few months.
Around 5:00 PM (in Brasília), bitcoin was up 2.60% to $94,241.75 and ethereum rose 3.05% to $3,216.79, according to the Binance platform.
The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Scott, released the latest version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act this morning. The expectation is that the legislation will move forward for a vote later this week. The bill aims to establish clear rules for digital assets, protecting retail investors, ensuring future innovation, and safeguarding national security.
"This is an important week for cryptocurrencies," said the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins. "Congress is about to modernize our financial markets for the 21st century. The most important thing we can do now for investors is to take crypto asset markets out of the regulatory gray area," he added.
The recent price movement suggests that bitcoin and ethereum are "forming bullish continuation structures", with declines attracting institutional demand, said LMAX Group strategist Joel Kruger. "Regulatory developments in Washington are also helping to sustain sentiment," he added.
The outlook for Ethereum has improved, with the digital asset likely to outperform bitcoin, says Geoff Kendrick of Standard Chartered. The bitcoin's underperformance has hurt the outlook for all digital assets, given its continued dominance in the sector, he says. However, ongoing purchases of ethereum by Bitmine Immersion Technologies put the cryptocurrency in a position of relative advantage, he adds.
