Crypto Markets Bounce after SEC Closes Ethereum 2.0 Investigation

Crypto markets rallied on Wednesday after the SEC officially closed its investigation into Ethereum 2.0.

While Bitcoin is trading relatively flat, Ethereum surged 4%, bringing its monthly gain to 14%. Meanwhile, Polkadot and Solana rallied by 3%.

Many tokens tied closely to Ethereum, like Lido DAO’s governance token (LDO), Ethereum Name Service (ENS), and Maker (MKR), are up between 12% and 20% in the last 24 hours.

Yield trading protocol Pendle is today’s biggest winner among the top 100 digital assets by market capitalization after a 21% surge.

On June 18, Consensys, the blockchain software development company that recently sued the SEC over its attempts to classify ETH as a security, announced that the SEC is ending its investigation into Ethereum.

“The Enforcement Division of the SEC has notified us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0,” Consensys posted on X. “This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions.”

Ethereum 2.0 was a term formerly used to describe Ethereum’s transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) network.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $152 million of net outflows on Tuesday, continuing a four-day streak of outflows. Fidelity’s FBTC led outflows with $83 million, followed by Grayscale’s GBTC with $62 million, according to Farside data.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets traded slightly higher on Wednesday. The Dow climbed 0.15%, while the Nasdaq Composite is flat, and the S&P 500 is up 0.30%.