A worsening macroeconomic climate and the collapse of industry giants such as FTX and Terra have weighed on bitcoin’s price this year.
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Cryptocurrency prices dropped Monday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, with violating securities laws.
Bitcoin fell about 5.5% to $25,719.60 to its lowest level since March, according to Coin Metrics. Ether slid 5% to $1,806.68.
The declines came after the SEC alleged Binance and its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, comingled billions of dollars of investor funds with their own and violated securities laws. The complaint follows a similar one against Binance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission earlier this year.
The suit is the latest development in this year’s crackdown on the crypto industry by U.S. regulators. Since January, the SEC has charged Kraken, Genesis and Gemini Trust with offering unregistered securities to investors and has warned Coinbase of potential securities charges.
Bitcoin last week capped its worst month of trading since November, finishing May down 7.9% after trading in a narrow range of between $26,000 and $28,000. Technical analysts see $25,200 as the key level to watch for bitcoin on the downside.
