Bitcoin Tumbles, Ether Slumps While Memecoins Like Pepe Crash — What's Happening?

Bitcoin BTC/USD dipped below $27,000 for the second consecutive day, mirroring its late March figures.

At the time of reporting, the most significant digital currency by market size was priced around $27,370 — a 4% decline from the previous day.

Throughout the season, Bitcoin's price has swung between $25,000 and $30,000. Despite its price turbulence, amplified by scant liquidity, Bitcoin has seen an overall growth of roughly 59% this year.

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Ether ETH/USD, meanwhile, was last spotted trading close to $1,765 levels, marking a dip of around 3.2% from two days ago. After the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade in early April — which transitioned the blockchain from a proof-of-work to a more eco-friendly proof-of-stake protocol — Ether's price has stayed within its recent range.

The hype around Pepecoin PEPE/USD appears to be cooling off less than a week after it hit a remarkable market cap of $1.8 billion.

In fact, PEPE saw a 22% drop today, falling to $0.00000128. Its price has been on a steady decline since peaking on May 5, when it reached a market cap of $1.8 billion.

Crypto intelligence firm Nansen reported that "smart money" wallets — crypto accounts owned by savvy traders or institutions — reduced their PEPE holdings by $3 million in the last 24 hours.

Polygon MATIC/USD fell 2% in morning trade, while the meme coin Shiba Inu SHIB/USD dropped 3%. Most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap have seen a consistent 6% drop over the last week.

Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies

The crypto industry is currently locking horns with U.S. regulators, alleging that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. government have failed to establish clear regulations.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is bracing for a long-term legal dispute with the SEC after the agency warned the company of violating securities laws.

The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission accused the crypto exchange Binance of breaking trading rules in March.

The Bitcoin network has recently been dealing with congestion issues, causing Binance to temporarily suspend Bitcoin withdrawals last week.

Bitcoin transaction fees have surged this week, and while they are beginning to recede, they remain elevated. The original Bitcoin network wasn't designed to manage high-volume transactions.

Next: Paradigm Throws Down Gauntlet, Supports Coinbase Against SEC's 'Insincerity'

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