It could have had a bad outcome when the world's leading financial authority targeted an entire industry in the world's largest economy. The concerns were justified as the SEC tackled not just random dubious players, but Coinbase and Binance.US, two leading crypto exchanges in the United States. Coinbase, in particular, has been under the attention of authorities since 2021.

But if we put cryptocurrencies on the hit list of the SEC aside, the market appears to be quite robust. At the time of publication, Bitcoin (BTC) is virtually unchanged from its pre-SEC intervention level, with only minimal divergence.

Bitcoiners hodln unmoved (holding Bitcoin)

Why is that? To put it bluntly, there are simply too few sellers. The so-called "weak hands," i.e. short-term investors, have been flushed out of the market. Those who are still holding on are no longer impressed by the saber-rattling from Washington. That was different then after the turmoil surrounding the FTX bankruptcy.

Hashrate exploded

The positive mood in the market is also reflected in mining. The hashrate, or aggregate computing power of miners, is chasing one all-time high after another. At 378 exahashes per second (EH/s), more miners than ever are participating in the search for the next valid Bitcoin block.

On the one hand, this represents a clear increase in security for Bitcoin. On the other hand, the hashrate also indicates a certain level of trust on the part of miners. After all, behind each additional exahash is an investment that must be worthwhile.

In other words, miners apparently expect higher bitcoin prices in the future (and have certainly set their sights on the halving of next year). There is no other explanation for this "race to the top."

Miners holding BTC

The logical consequence of the positive market sentiment among miners is also their cautious liquidation of coins. Companies are holding back more and more of their freshly mined coins. This makes supply even tighter, which explains, at least in part, why Bitcoin has been doing so well lately despite being in crisis mode.

Or put another way, even the vendetta of the world's most powerful financial official can exert little influence on the inherent power of reality. Honey Badger doesn't care.

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