Is the SEC causing downturns and FUD in the digital asset sector?

The collapse of systemically important crypto exchange FTX and resulting developments dragged the bitcoin (BTC) price down more in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022 than macroeconomic drivers such as key interest rate hikes, according to a new study. Meanwhile, other factors such as key interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve have a much smaller effect on the bitcoin price, even with increases of 50 and 75 basis points.
That the FTX collapse has had a widespread impact on the crypto market is further confirmed, analysts say, by the fact that the number of active wallets has increased by 2% compared to the previous quarter, suggesting that investors have responded to the collapse by increasingly moving their crypto funds from centralized exchanges to self-managed wallets.

Accordingly, as data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows, the bitcoin price fell to an interim daily low of $21,633 on Friday.
One of the triggers for this downturn are momentary developments around crypto regulation in the U.S., but even before that the sentiment had slowly turned negative again. Thus, experts had already warned of a crash to $21,000 or lower.
At the time of going to press, Bitcoin is still hovering around 21,700 US dollars and is thus down just under 7% for February to date.
We at Teroxx warned weeks ago that the January upswings in the market only showed temporary strength in the market and that this did not represent a turnaround to a bull market. Meanwhile, crypto analyst Venturefounder, also from CryptoQuant, is looking beyond the short-term price trend and instead wants to know if Bitcoin’s bottoming out has really been completed yet.
Thus, the expert believes that it would be a strong sign if BTC can at least defend the 200-day moving average (DMA) at $20,000 or $19,000 as support, because this could have far-reaching consequences for the further development.

The virtual asset regulator in Dubai, which is responsible for enforcing cryptocurrency laws, has published new guidelines for virtual asset service providers operating in the emirates.
According to Irina Heaver, a crypto and blockchain lawyer practicing in the United Arab Emirates, the asset regulator has published new guidelines that include four mandatory rulebooks and rulebooks categorized by activity that set out the rules for the operation of virtual asset service providers. These rules apply only to market participants within Dubai. Companies operating in the Dubai Free Zone are exempt, as it has its own regulatory authority. Commenting on the development, Heaver told Cointelegraph that it is a good thing that the Dubai regulator has provided more clarity in the crypto space:
“Regulatory certainty is very good for companies. It is good for consumers, investors and for the Emirate of Dubai. Regulation has been expected for some time and is definitely welcomed.”