Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Mixed Amid Possible Trouble For Binance: Analyst Says Crypto Traders More Concerned About Insolvency Risk – Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ethereum (ETH/USD), Dogecoin (DOGE/USD)

Bitcoin and Ethereum were trading higher on Monday evening as the global cryptocurrency market cap rose 0.1% to $850.9 billion at 7:21 p.m. EST.

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Why It Matters: The trading day was dominated by regulatory news on Monday. The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly considering criminal charges against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its CEO, Chanpgeng Zhao.

The alleged offenses are related to the 2018 inquiry into Binance’s compliance with anti-money laundering rules and fines.

Separately, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after the local authorities received formal notification from the United States. 

The U.S. is likely to pursue Bankman-Fried’s extradition, according to Bahamian authorities. 

“Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange and traders will pay close attention to the spotlight that is on them. The DOJ prosecutors supposedly have evidence that could justify filing charges over possible money laundering and criminal sanctions violations,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA.

“Crypto traders are more concerned about insolvency risk and right now these AML and sanctions violations accusations seem like they might only lead to fines and not be the domino that triggers a mass exodus of this exchange,” said Moya in a note, seen by Benzinga.

Binance’s net outflows touched $902 million intraday on Monday surpassing those of all other centralized exchanges in the period, reported CoinDesk, citing Nansen data.

Meanwhile, risk assets were buoyed as investors expected a soft inflation report. Treasury Secretary Janey Yellen said recently that inflation should continue to recede over 2023 unless there are unexpected shocks to the economy.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed 1.4% and 1.3% higher respectively on Monday. U.S. stock futures were seen trading flat at the time of writing.

Bitcoin is “getting into resistance now, but a good bounce and therefore pretty decent daily candles across the markets. Tomorrow and Wednesday are going to be fire,” said Michaël van de Poppe.

“Looks like markets want to go up,” said the Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency trader.

Justin Bennett said $12,000 levels for Bitcoin are “still in the cards” but the question is “how many shorts does [Bitcoin] shake out first?

Santiment, a market intelligence platform, said in a note that the dollar index, a measure of the greenback’s strength against six other currencies, is approaching an “interesting zone” on the week for a bounce which “would not be good for risk assets.” The dollar index was up 0.2% at 105 at the time of writing. 

USD Index Chart By Santiment 

“This week’s macro events is looking to be one of the most exciting ones of the year,” said Santiment noting that the week is “jam-packed” with key events like consumer price inflation (CPI) numbers, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, and Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI)  to “end the year with a bang.”

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