Markets See Red Following BTC ETF Rejections, News of Anti-Crypto Measures in China

Yesterday evening's news of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's disapproval orders for 9 different Bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposals from 3 applicants - which intersected with emerging reports of toughened anti-crypto measures in China - has apparently reversed yesterday's short-lived market upswing.

Pointedly, multiple crypto commentators had attributed the markets' evanescent green to bulls exploiting a maintenance window on leveraged crypto trading platform BitMEX to force a spike.

Bitcoin is trading at around $6,452 at press time, down around 1 percent on the day, according to Cointelegraph's Bitcoin price index.

Breaking news from the U.S. and China then saw Bitcoin take a steep price hit, although the coin has since recovered back to hold its week-long levels.

Among the top ten coins by market cap, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano and Ripple are all seeing losses of around 2-4 percent on the day.

Today's $13 billion market cap squeeze is similar the sharp market tumble that came in response to July's news that another Bitcoin ETF proposal - this time submitted by the Winklevoss twins' - had also been rejected by the SEC, which then saw a dizzying $12 billion wiped from total market capitalization.

The parallels extend beyond market response, as the regulator had in all of its disapproval orders reiterated its qualms over inadequate "Resistance to price manipulation" and vulnerability to fraudulent practices in the insufficiently sized Bitcoin derivatives markets.

As reported August 21, China's leading social media platform WeChat has permanently blocked a number of crypto and blockchain related accounts that were suspected of publishing crypto "Hype" in violation of regulations introduced earlier this month.

New measures are also reportedly underway to toughen the "Clean-up" of third party crypto payment channels, including those used by over the counter platforms.

Away from the negative onslaught from the U.S. and China, crypto analysts have today suggested that Segwit adoption is on the rise for Bitcoin transactions, as the top crypto continues to trade within a relatively stable price range.