First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Bounces Back From Friday Lows

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Bitcoin (BTC) has gained ground again after hitting lows of $25,800 late Friday, rising to $27,400 early Monday morning. Markets are preparing for a busy week ahead with U.S. retail sales data to be released Tuesday and Federal Reserve Chair Jereome Powell to speak on Friday. Stocks and commodities were also climbing early Monday. Some traders believe bitcoin’s holding of the $27,000 level over the past few days is setting the crypto up for a run to new highs. Among other crypto movers Monday, Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking solution for Ethereum, gained 10%, and Litecoin (LTC) was up 8%.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) head of crypto enforcement has promised a crackdown on illicit behavior on trading platforms, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Eun Young Choi, director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, said the DOJ is targeting crypto exchanges that allow “criminal actors to easily profit from their crimes and cash out,” as a means of fighting crypto crime, which she said has grown “significantly” in the last four years. Choi added that the department’s focus is on businesses that sidestep anti-money laundering or know-your-customer rules, or who do not engage in thorough compliance and risk mitigation.

Crypto exchange Binance has announced that it would cease operations in Canada, citing the challenging regulatory environment. “We had high hopes for the rest of the Canadian blockchain industry,” the company said in a Friday tweet. “Unfortunately, new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time.” In February, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) revealed new guidance that prohibited crypto asset trading platforms within the country from allowing customers to buy or deposit stablecoins without the CSA’s prior approval. Obtaining that approval would require the crypto trading platform to pass the CSA’s various due diligence checks.

Edited by Stephen Alpher.