Bitcoin price reclaims $70k as Crypto Market surges $265 Billion

Bitcoin (BTC) rose 13% to reclaim the $70,000 level this week despite intensified regulatory pressure on exchanges such as Coinbase and KuCoin, as well as a landmark jail sentence for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Bitcoin price surged 13% this week, as global crypto market cap grew $265 billion

This week, the crypto markets have seen a positive shift after recovering from the shockwaves triggered by $800 million outflows from Bitcoin ETFs in the previous week.

Bitcoin price peaked at $71,726 for the week, which marked an increase of 13%, according to TradingView data.

The major bullish catalysts for Rising demand from ETFs as well as Bitcoin miners cooling the sell-pressure, opting to accumulate their holding ahead of the halving.

Looking at the overall crypto market, the bulls asserted dominance throughout the course of the week.

At the start of the week on March 24, the global crypto market cap stood at $2.5 trillion. But, at the time of writing on Friday March 29, the valuation of the crypto sector has surged above $2.78 trillion, according to date from Coingecko.

Effectively, the global crypto market cap grew by $265 billion between March 23 and March 29.

Other major coins such as Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and Dogecoin  (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) all featured on the top gainers charts, as they reported weekly gains of 8.11%, 6.15%, 44.7% and 25.3%, respectively (as of 29th March).

Regulators turned the heat on Kucoin and Coinbase this week

Price action aside, this week has seen numerous legal and regulatory developments impact the cryptocurrency sector.

Popular digital asset exchange, KuCoin, found itself at the epicentre of investor anxiety, as seen by over $1 billion of withdrawals within just 24 hours.

This mass exodus was triggered amid escalating legal actions by U.S. authorities, following federal prosecutors charging the exchange and two of its founders with violating anti-money laundering laws on Tuesday.

KuCoin wasn’t the only exchange to come under regulatory scrutiny this week, with the SEC achieving a significant victory in its ongoing lawsuit against Coinbase.

The regulator, which first filed its suit in June 2023, has alleged that Coinbase has been operating as an unregistered broker and exchange, with the regulatory body seeking to prohibit the company from continuing such activities permanently.

The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been equally assertive, clarifying that social media influencers engaging with crypto-related content could be subjected to financial promotion rules.

This signals a broadening interpretation of what constitutes financial advice and marketing, especially those proliferating through social media channels, which have become influential in shaping investor behaviour.