More progress towards a spot Ether exchange-traded fund also did little to shore up sentiment towards cryptocurrency markets.
Bitcoin fell 1% in the past 24 hours to $67,017.0 by 08:51 ET (12:51 GMT). The token had fallen as far as $66,000 on Thursday, as the dollar rebounded sharply from one-month lows.
The token was also headed for weekly losses, as increased fears of high interest rates largely offset improved capital flows into crypto investment products.
Meanwhile, the largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) plans to buy more BTC, by issuing $500 million bonds also failed to spur much price action.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency was trading down 3.3% over the past seven days, as angst over high for longer U.S. interest rates dented the outlook for crypto.
While weaker-than-expected U.S. inflation data had initially dented the dollar, Bitcoin took little support from this trend after the Fed said it only saw the possibility of one interest rate cut this year, compared to prior forecasts for three cuts.
This saw traders price out a bulk of expectations for multiple rate cuts, which weighed in particular on speculative assets such as crypto. High rates bode poorly for crypto, given that they limit overall liquidity conditions, and also deter bets on risk-heavy, speculative assets.
The dollar benefited from this trade, rebounding from a one-month low
Broader cryptocurrency prices moved in a flat-to-low range as concerns over high interest rates largely offset some positive developments towards a spot Ether ETF.
Ether rose 0.6% to $3,513.70 and was one of the few altcoins trading positive. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said in a testimony before the Senate that he expected spot Ether ETFs to be fully approved by the regulator by summer.
The token rose as much as 1% but swiftly culled most gains in late trade on Thursday.
Other altcoins largely fell. Cardano, XRP and Solana shed between 1% and 2% each.
Among memecoins, DOGE/USD slipped 0.8% while Investing.com Shiba Inu Index climbed 0.9%.
Bitcoin ETFs witnessed net outflows of more than $226 million on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of withdrawals this week, reminiscent of the outflows at the end of April.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced the largest outflow, with $106 million withdrawn, according to preliminary data from SoSoValue. Grayscale’s GBTC saw $62 million in outflows, while Ark Invest’s ARKB had $53 million taken out.
Only BlackRock’s IBIT recorded a net inflow, gaining $18 million. ETFs from Valkyrie, Franklin Templeton, Hashdex, and WisdomTree showed no inflow or outflow activity.
Wednesday was the only day this week with a net inflow for these U.S.-listed products, adding $100 million. Over the three days, the total net outflows reached $564 million, nearly half the $1.2 billion withdrawn over six days at the end of April.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
