Crypto prices on the move after a number of impactful events in mid-February

The US SEC has been cracking down on various aspects of the crypto industry, and for a time, each new day brought some major development. Primarily, the regulator has been publishing new rules, and announcing enforcement actions against specific companies and individuals in the world of digital assets.

The most recent example is Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon. Both of them were charged by the regulator for misleading investors by providing false information while selling unregistered securities, according to the SEC.

whew lad, lots to digest in the SEC lawsuit vs Do Kwon and Terraform Labs

right off the bat, a very interesting fact is that the SEC is being more thorough than usual–specifically running through the Howey test for various assets (UST, LUNA, and wLUNA) and also alleging that… https://t.co/1JsBQijMnw pic.twitter.com/qHuL6mKpeo

— _gabrielShapir0 (@lex_node) February 16, 2023

Commenting on recent events, as well as the crypto price action that briefly saw Bitcoin reach $25k before correcting back down, Callie Cox, an investment analyst at eToro, shared her thoughts on the past week.

Commenting on the Terraform Labs and Do Kwon situation in a recent interview, Cox said that the situation does not seem to bother Bitcoin investors anymore, which is clear by looking at the coin’s price behavior. “We’ve been through this before, where we’ve seen these really awful headlines and we kind of worked it in. Now it is kind of expected in a way, in the crypto industry.” She concluded by saying that crypto investors are “not skipping a beat” despite the situation.

The SEC’s crackdown could bring greater regulatory clarity

Moving on to the SEC’s recent decision to ramp up crypto regulation action, primarily their crackdown on staking, Cox said that the recent moves of the regulator would definitely act as a source of uncertainty in the industry. On the plus side, she added that it does not seem to be deterring the appetite for crypto, particularly when it comes to more established coins.

However, it is still a source of uncertainty, as no one knows what will happen next, and there are numerous investors who are simply not buying crypto because the regulatory ground remains murky. In that sense, some more clarity could be a good thing for onboarding new investors.

Cox believes that this could be a good thing for institutional investors, in particular, although eToro’s focus is more on retail investors. However, the same can be said for the retail crowd. In the end, clarity could bring greater price stability and encourage both retail and institutional investors, previously hesitant to even touch crypto, move into the market.

She noted that retail investors never really left crypto. Some did sold out, but for the most part, investors have simply diversified their portfolio by going for more conservative assets, and the majority has just decided to HODL and wait. With that said, the progress in inflation has changed the sentiment slightly since the start of the year, and retail investors did show signs of coming back.

At this point, inflation is way worse for our wallets than our portfolios

🦀THE BOTTOM LINE🦀on why we can't let our perception of the economy blur our opinions on the markets (because if you do, you could be missing some encouraging trends)https://t.co/9W7cA0oohX pic.twitter.com/osCJROdZnu

— Callie Cox (@callieabost) February 17, 2023