Here’s what happened in crypto today

Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) chief Lee Bok-Hyun revealed plans to meet global regulators, including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Gary Gensler to discuss crypto. El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has declared his victory in the El Salvador general elections, though the official results have yet to be released. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin Ordinals market cooled off last month after a record-setting December.

S. Korea regulator to discuss spot Bitcoin ETF with SEC chief Gary Gensler

A top South Korean regulator is planning to visit the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Gary Gensler, for discussing spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) chief, Lee Bok-Hyun presented a business plan for 2024 at the Financial Supervisory Service in Seoul on Feb. 5, which includes visits to major advanced financial markets, such as New York, in the second quarter of the year to discuss various aspects of South Korean financial markets.
The FSS chief revealed that he plans to meet SEC Chair Gary Gensler later in 2024 to discuss digital assets and spot Bitcoin ETFs, among other issues. He added that the SEC’s recent approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs had a major impact on the world’s financial policies.

El Salvador exit polls show Nayib Bukele to win election

Bitcoin advocate Nayib Bukele is largely expected to win the El Salvador general election after new exit poll data indicates that he has won 87% of the votes, though official results are yet to be released.
Bukele, who leads the Nueva (New) Ideas party, has already announced his victory in the election in a post on X, claiming his party has secured more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 deputies in the assembly.
His closest competitors, Manuel Flores and Joel Sanchez, only hold 7% and 4% of the votes, according to separate data from CID Gallup.

Nayib Bukele made Bitcoin legal tender in the country in September 2021, among other initiatives supporting the cryptocurrency. Last week, Vice President Félix Ulloa reportedly confirmed Bukele’s Bitcoin strategy wouldn’t change if he were elected, according to a Reuters report on Feb. 1.

Bitcoin Ordinals sales declined 61% in January

Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin network lost momentum in January, with sales declining by 61% to $335 million, according to nonfungible token (NFT) aggregator CryptoSlam.
Ordinals burst onto the scene last year, with sales hitting $868 million in December — the highest in the collection’s history.
In a discussion with Cointelegraph, intergovernmental blockchain expert Anndy Lian said the slump was likely caused by oversaturation in the NFT market.

“With an influx of new projects and artists entering the space, buyers now face a plethora of options. The spoil-for-choices situation got more obvious when other blockchains like Solana were picking up more steam,” he said.
Monthly Ethereum NFT sales declined by 2.2% in January, while NFT sales on Avalanche increased by 89%, per CryptoSlam data.