Profit Booking in Bitcoin, Ether After Biden Issues Crypto Order

Crypto traders booked profit on a short spike in bitcoin BTC$87,607.06 and ether ETH$2,907.90 during the European hours as U.S. President Joe Biden signed a first-of-its-kind executive order on cryptocurrencies.

• Bitcoin jumped to over $42,400 before falling to $42,115 as traders took profits on the sudden move. Ether similarly moved to $2,762 a $20 drop. Ether previously reached $2,773 in early Asian hours, data show.
• "While volatility is currently rocking the digital assets as some buyers are currently taking profits, the certainty that more investors will invest in these leading assets, in the long run, is high, as they align with what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tagged 'responsible innovation.' With the plausible future buyup, we can expect BTC and ETH to breach new resistances in the near future," Greg Waisman, co-founder and COO of the global payment network Mercuryo, said.
• The move followed the upward trend from early Asian hours when bitcoin jumped to over $42,484 from Tuesday’s lows of $38,100. An inadvertently published statement from Yellen said that presidential executive order on cryptocurrencies would "support responsible innovation.”
• "This is most probably due some immediate speculation on the impact of the order. The approach of the order is more positive than some have expected. But nothing will happen immediately. It will take long time for the policies to be established (the order by itself does not introduce any policy). Therefore we can expect some ambiguity in regulation for foreseeable time. Sanctions on Russia do not help here as that is also introducing additional uncertainty in the [anti-money laundering] field," Vasja Zupan, president of Matrix Exchange, said.
• Wednesday’s executive order, the first such to focus exclusively on the growing digital asset sector, directs federal agencies to better communicate their work in the digital asset sector without laying specific positions the administration wants agencies to adopt, as reported.
• Crypto markets added 6.3% in the past 24 hours following reports of the executive order. Broader markets saw similar moves, America’s S&P 500 futures added 1.6% while Europe’s Stoxx 600 3.12% to extend Tuesday’s gains.
• Bitcoin is up nearly 9% in the past 24 hours. However, it continues to be rangebound between the $38,000 and $44,300 range, data show.

UPDATE (Mar. 9, 13:17 UTC): Adds analyst comment in second bullet.

UPDATE (Mar. 9, 14:02 UTC): Adds second analyst comment in fourth bullet.