Still, the world’s largest cryptocurrency found some support around the $57,000 level after sinking to over four-month lows earlier on Monday. Bitcoin fell 0.8% in the past 24 hours to $57,072.0 by 08:09 ET
The token and the broader crypto space took little support from a weaker dollar, with reports suggesting that major Bitcoin wallet holders had also begun mobilizing their wallets for potential sales.
Trustees for the now defunct Mt Gox crypto exchange said they had begun distributing tokens to clients affected by a 2014 hack.
While the trustees have not outlined the value of the distributions, wallets associated with the exchange were seen moving around $9 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year.
Traders dumped Bitcoin on fears that receivers of the tokens will be largely encouraged to sell their holdings, given Bitcoin’s massive price jump over the past decade. Such a scenario presents massive selling pressure on the token.
Several Bitcoin “whale” wallets were seen coming online for potential sales of their holdings, while inflows into crypto investment products were also seen largely drying up through the past few weeks.
Among broader crypto markets, major altcoins saw mixed performance despite Bitcoin’s drop.
World no.2 token Ether climbed 1% to $3,043.14. Prior to this, the token broke below $3,000 for the first time since May.
ADA/USD and XRP rose 2.5% and 0.7%, respectively, while Solana fell 0.4%. Among meme tokens, DOGE/USD dropped 1.8%, while Investing.com Shiba Inu Index added 0.8%.
Selling pressure on Bitcoin spilled over into major altcoins, given that the token usually acts as a figurehead for the crypto industry.
As such, crypto prices largely disregarded recent weakness in the dollar, amid growing optimism over interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. This trend saw Wall Street hit record highs.
A testimony by Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to offer more cues on interest rates this week. Key U.S. consumer price index inflation data is also on tap.
Digital asset investment products saw net inflows of $441 million last week, breaking a three-week streak of net outflows, CoinShares said in a new report. The last time these products recorded net inflows was the week ending June 7, when investors added over $2 billion.
Bitcoin accounted for $398 million of the inflows. CoinShares noted that it is unusual for BTC to represent only 90% of the total inflows. Among altcoins, Solana stood out, with SOL-linked products attracting $16 million.
CoinShares attributed the inflows to recent price weakness, driven by defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox preparing to repay creditors and the German government’s law enforcement agency moving large amounts of bitcoin to exchanges.
Investors likely saw this as a buying opportunity, CoinShares said, however, the positive sentiment did not extend to blockchain equities, which experienced $8 million in outflows, bringing their year-to-date total to $556 million.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
