Fears of more selling pressure largely offset positive signals on U.S. inflation and interest rates, and saw Bitcoin and crypto markets lag a rally in their broader risk-driven peers.
Bitcoin dropped 3.7% to $58,812.2 by 09:07 ET (13:07 GMT).
Fears of selling pressure stemming from token distributions by defunct crypto exchange Mt Gox came back into focus this week, after a wallet associated with the exchange and holding $2 billion of Bitcoin was seen carrying out test transactions this week. The move could herald a new round of token distributions by the exchange, after it began returning Bitcoin stolen during a 2014 hack back to clients in July.
While it is unclear just how much Bitcoin Mt Gox’s distributions will entail, traders were skittish over the distributions presenting more selling pressure on the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
Mt Gox was seen mobilizing about $9 billion of Bitcoin earlier this year.
Digital assets research firm IntoTheBlock said on Wednesday that about $1 billion of the stablecoin USDT was withdrawn from crypto exchanges this week.
Outsized USDT outflows have heralded price weakness in Bitcoin in recent months, with the move potentially indicating that traders were taking money off exchanges in preparation for a risk-off event.
Broader cryptocurrency prices fell on Thursday, lagging a rally in other risk-driven assets as fears of the Mt Gox distributions and the exchange withdrawals weighed.
Softer-than-expected consumer price index inflation data did little to lift crypto prices, even as broader risk-driven markets, especially stocks, rallied on the prospect of lower interest rates.
But given that CPI still marked a month-on-month increase, traders were seen positioning for a smaller interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September. This notion limited the breadth of the risk-on move.
World no.2 token Ether fell 3.6% to $2,639.04, while SOL, XRP and ADA dropped between 1.6% and 4.5%.
Among meme tokens, DOGE lost 2.5%.
Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume, has officially registered as a “reporting entity” with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), signaling that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange can now operate in India after being blocked since January.
In a blog post published today, Binance announced that its website and app are once again fully accessible to users in India.
“The registration with the FIU underscores Binance’s commitment to compliance with anti-money laundering standards in India as well as any other jurisdiction it operates in,” the announcement states.
Binance’s return to India follows a January ban imposed by Indian regulators on nine crypto websites, including Binance, due to concerns over illegal operations without proper regulatory compliance.
In June, the FIU imposed a penalty of 188.2 million Indian Rupees ($2.25 million) on Binance for violating the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The FIU also issued directives to Binance to ensure strict adherence to India’s anti-money laundering regulations.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
