Crypto Markets Tumble as SEC Rejects Winklevoss Twins' Second Bitcoin ETF Application

Crypto markets have taken a sharp downturn, today, July 27, with all of the top ten coins by market cap hit by hefty losses and Bitcoin dipping back below the $8,000 psychological price point, as data from Coin360 shows.

The grim market picture is likely due to yesterday's breaking news that the Winklevoss Twins' application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has now been rejected for a second time by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bitcoin is trading around $7,915 to press time, down about 4 percent on the day.

Bitcoin has since slightly recovered from its intraday low at around $7,874 - and its weekly and monthly price performance remains in the green, up around 6 and 30 percent respectively.

Cardano is down almost 7 percent, trading around $0.16 per coin, with IOTA down around 5.4 percent at $0.98 and Bitcoin Cash down almost 5 percent to trade at $802 to press time.

Of the top 20 coins on CoinMarketCap, VeChain - ranked 18th by market cap - has somehow been immunized from the declining fortunes of most crypto assets on the day.

Crypto exchange Binance's native token Binance Coin - ranked 17th on CoinMarketCap - is also up a solid 6 percent on the day, trading around $13.81 to press time - its highest price point yet during its bullish run this week.

Crypto entrepreneur Charlie Shrem has argued on Twitter yesterday that the SEC's second rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF it is in some sense "Old news." He stated that a pending decision over the Bitcoin ETF that has recently been filed by VanEck & SolidX for trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange will be more pivotal for the industry - and would likely generate more price-impactful "ETF excitement."

"The VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust will trade on the CBOE. Its pricing relies on the MVIS Bitcoin OTC Index, not a exchange like Gemini. It seems like the SEC would have to deem OTC markets as having better investor protections and liquidity. More investigation is required."

On July 24 the SEC delayed its decision on a Bitcoin ETF application from investment firm Direxion, the same day as digital asset manager Bitwise filed its own application with the regulator for an ETF that would track an index of ten cryptocurrencies.