Major coins traded in the red on Monday evening after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao for allegedly offering unregistered cryptocurrency derivatives products to U.S. clients in violation of federal law.

What Happened: Apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) plummeted to $26,525, its lowest point since March 17.

At the time of writing, the global crypto market capitalization stood at $1.13 trillion, a decrease of 2.84% over the last day.  

U.S. stocks rose on Monday afternoon as investors welcomed the news that First Citizens BancShares would be acquiring most of the business of Silicon Valley Bank. The S&P 500 was up a modest 0.16%, and the Nasdaq, which is heavily focused on tech companies, was up 0.34%.

News Highlights: According to data from Coinglass, over $39 million worth of long BTC positions were liquidated as a result of the CFTC lawsuit against Binance news.

CFTC proclaimed that several cryptocurrencies — including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether and Binance USD — are commodities. This news came as a surprise to traders who had presumed these cryptos were securities, as suggested earlier by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler.

$MicroStrategy (MSTR.US)$ on Monday said it invested another 6,455 Bitcoin at an average price of $23,238 per coin over the last five weeks, bringing its total number of coins held to 91,579.

Analyst Notes: “As we approach Bitcoin halving, which is due in May 2024, we can expect Bitcoin to touch $30,000 as a short-term price target. The price appreciation across crypto assets will encourage users to create fresh positions and accumulate more digital assets. The overall outlook is looking positive and current momentum may sustain if macroeconomic factors remain favourable in the coming weeks,” said Dhruvil Shah, SVP of Technology at Liminal, a wallet infrastructure and custody platform.

Pseudonymous crypto analyst Rekt Capital said BTC is about to form its first "Bullish Engulfing Quarterly Candlesince Spring/Summer 2020. This could be an exceptionally special market event, as a Bullish Engulfing Candle signifies the potential start of a long-term uptrend.

The latest data from Santiment reveals that Ethereum is now being held in self-custody away from exchanges at the highest level since the token was introduced nearly 8 years ago. Over 10.31% of ETH is now held on exchanges, indicating serious confidence from long-term holders - an essential all-time low.