Bitcoin rose 1.5% in the past 24 hours to $69,253.8 by 08:18 ET (12:18 GMT). But the world’s largest cryptocurrency remained well within a $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established since mid-March.
Bukele re-election brings little price action amid few Bitcoin references
Bitcoin saw little price action even as El Salvador President Nayib Bukele- who had adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender in 2021- was re-elected for a second term over the weekend.
Bukele was regarded as a major figurehead in the crypto space over his legalization of the token, and had also regularly used the country’s treasury to purchase the token from the open market.
But Bukele made little mention of Bitcoin during his swearing in. The El Salvador President also appeared to have removed all mentions of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from his social media profile on X (formerly Twitter).
Bukele promised medicine to fix the ailing El Salvadorian economy during his swearing in, after government debt levels skyrocketed during his first term. The country’s adoption of Bitcoin had done little to stimulate the economy.
Bukele’s highly-publicized plans for a “Bitcoin City” had also largely fallen flat as they garnered little interest from private investors. El Salvador had earlier this year returned to traditional debt markets with a $1 billion bond sale.
Still, El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings were up substantially in value, after the token saw a stellar rally through 2023 and early-2024.
Broader cryptocurrency prices moved little on Monday, taking little support from a broader rally in risk-driven markets amid increased focus on interest rate cuts.
World no.2 token Ether rose 0.15% to $3,811.02, while Solana added 0.5% and XRP fell 0.4%
Among meme coins, SHIB lost 0.2%, while DOGE moved up 1.6%.
Stock markets rallied on Monday in anticipation of interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada later this week.
Expectations for a rate cut by the Federal Reserve, in September, also rose after data on Friday showed some cooling in inflation. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates steady at a meeting next week.
Australia-based Monochrome Asset Management announced that its Monochrome Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), under the ticker IBTC, will start trading on the Cboe Australia exchange on Tuesday, Coindsk reported today.
This ETF is the first and only one in Australia to hold bitcoin directly.
While Australia has two other exchange-traded products on Cboe Australia that offer exposure to spot crypto assets, neither of them holds the cryptocurrency directly.
“Before IBTC, Australian investors were only able to invest in ETFs that indirectly hold bitcoin or through offshore bitcoin products, both of which don’t benefit from the investor protection rules under the directly held crypto asset Australian Financial Services Licensing (AFSL) licensing regime,” the company said.
To launch such a product in Australia, companies need approval from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and the exchange where the product will be listed, in this case, Cboe Australia. Monochrome had already secured approval from ASIC for this ETF.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
