World no.2 token Ether also saw extended losses as traders largely looked past the launch of spot exchange-traded funds in U.S. markets this week. The launch attracted a fraction of capital flows in comparison to those seen by spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.
Risk sentiment was battered by a sharp fall in Wall Street indexes on Wednesday, as investors heavily sold off major technology stocks following a couple of underwhelming second-quarter earnings.
Bitcoin fell 3.3% in the past 24 hours to $64,024.7 by 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT).
Bitcoin, and by proxy broader crypto markets, were also dented by uncertainty over the U.S. presidential race, especially after President Joe Biden pulled out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic frontrunner.
Harris was seen polling better than Biden against Republican nominee Donald Trump, and was also seen garnering widespread support from the Democratic party.
Given Harris’ past as a public prosecutor- who had cracked down on banks and for-profit colleges, it appeared likely that she would continue Biden’s agenda of stricter financial regulations in the country- which bode poorly for crypto.
Media reports said that Harris had reportedly declined an invitation to speak at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville. These drew ire from several crypto proponents.
Initial speculation over a Trump presidency had aided crypto markets, especially given that the Republican nominee has maintained a largely pro crypto stance.
Trump is set to speak at the Bitcoin Conference on Saturday.
Sentiment towards Bitcoin was also further undermined by reports showing defunct exchange Mt Gox had moved more tokens onto exchanges- likely preparing for more distributions.
Mt Gox has been a major pain point for Bitcoin’s price, as the defunct exchange began returning tokens stolen during a 2014 hack. Traders speculated receivers of the tokens would be largely inclined to sell them, given Bitcoin’s massive price gains over the past decade.
Among broader cryptocurrency prices, the world no.2 token Ether plunged nearly 9% to $3,143.52 on Thursday.
The token was little supported by the launch of spot ETFs in U.S. markets earlier this week, which did see strong trading volumes, of over $1 billion in their debut. But this was much lower than the $4 billion volumes seen by Bitcoin ETFs, indicating relatively lower investor appetite.
Other altcoins also made little headway. XRP fell slightly, while SOL and ADA fell 5.5% and 6%, respectively.
Among memetokens, DOGE tumbled 7.2%, while SHIB lost 7.2%.
Bitcoin miner MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), recently rebranded from Marathon Digital, announced on Thursday the purchase of an additional $100 million worth of bitcoin.
The company’s shares dropped by more than 2% in premarket trading on Thursday.
The move comes as part of the “full HODL” approach toward its bitcoin treasury policy. This means retaining all bitcoin mined in its operations and periodically making strategic open market purchases.
“Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO.
“We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to all hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.”
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
