Markets

Bitcoin price drops to four-month low as Mt. Gox makes first payments

Published

11 months ago

5 July, 2024

Bitcoin price drops to four-month low as Mt. Gox makes first payments

Mt. Gox distributed $148.4 million to creditors via Bitbank exchange.

Cryptocurrency markets continue to fall as investors fear heavy selling pressure from Mt. Gox creditors and the German government.

The combined market cap fell below $2.2 trillion for the first time since February, marking a 21% decline since hitting a local high of $2.785 four weeks ago.

Bitcoin Price briefly dipped below $54,000 after falling 8% in less than 12 hours before posting a modest bounce to climb back above $55,000, according to CoinGecko. BTC is now down 23% in 30 days.

BTC price. Source: CoinGecko.

Ethereum hit a low of $2,831 after falling 10.6% in 11 hours and was last trading at $2,941. ETH price has also fallen 24% in about four weeks, despite expectations that spot Ether exchange-traded funds could begin trading in the coming weeks.

However, despite the bearish performances of BTC and ETH, both assets continue to regain dominance as altcoins suffer brutal losses. Bitcoin now accounts for 52.85% of the combined cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum stands at 17.7% — up from 44.3% and 14.5% since mid-February, respectively.

Notable losses from the top 100 altcoins include Arbitrum (ARB) with the third largest loss in the last 24 hours, of 14.4%, Optimism (OP) with a 13.9% retracement, Notcoin (NO) with 13.5%, Polkadot (POINT) down 4.2%, and Solana (SUN) with a modest decline of 2.5%.

Only two of the top 100 cryptocurrencies bucked the trend and posted gains in the last 24 hours, with MultiversX (EGLD) rose 6.2% and Fasttoken (FTN) rose 1.9%.

According to CoinGlass, leveraged traders suffered $570.5 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $183 million in BTC positions and $137 million in ETH trades.

the-challenging Combined cryptocurrency market cap in 2024. Source: CoinGecko.

Mt. Gox transfers trigger liquidation

The downturn coincided with Mt. Gox, the now-defunct pioneering cryptocurrency exchange, making its first payments to creditors more than 10 years after halting withdrawals and filing for bankruptcy.

According to Arkham Intelligence, one of the Mt. Gox wallets made a large Bitcoin transfer worth US$2.71 billion about 12 hours ago — precipitating the sharp drop in cryptocurrency markets, Mt. Gox followed with a $148.4 million transfer three hours later, before sending $84.9 million worth of BTC to cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank.

On Reddit, user “mikeplus20”posted that they were reimbursed by Mt. Gox via Bitbank. “The BTC/BCC coins are already in my control!” they said. “I received exactly the amount shown in the Mt. Gox table. I am using Bitbank as my exchange.”

On July 5th, a to perceive was posted on Mt Gox’s website stating that some of its creditors had been repaid. It added that further repayments would be made once several conditions were met, asking creditors to “wait a bit” — suggesting it could be some time before more distributions are made.

Interestingly, the link to the notice now displays a 404 error, meaning the ad has been taken down.

Are Mt. Gox fears overblown?

The drama takes place on June 24th announcement from Mt. Gox’s rehabilitation administrator revealing that the exchange was preparing to begin distributing payments this month.

While the exchange holds 141,687 Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash worth approximately $8 billion, a July 4 report from CoinShares estimated that only 75,000 BTC and BCH will be paid out in the near term — with the initial round of payments going to creditors who agreed to receive payment prior to the resolution of civil litigation proceedings in exchange for forfeiting 10% of the funds owed to them.

Still, with $3.9 billion worth of BTC potentially about to hit the markets, analysts have assigned the recent wave of bearish momentum for nervous investors looking to reduce their exposure ahead of repayments. CoinShares estimated that the value of creditors’ holdings has risen 13,600% since Mt. Gox shut down in February 2014.

However, not everyone is convinced that Mt. Gox’s distributions are a cause for concern.

“For many, this will be a steep tax event if they decide to sell immediately,” said Luke Nolan, a research associate at CoinShares. “It is very likely that a large number of lenders will choose to sell only a small portion of their holdings or hold on to them for now.”

“Many of Mt. Gox’s early adopters, as well as lenders, are long-time Bitcoin enthusiasts who are less likely to sell all their Bitcoins immediately,” Lennix Lai, OKEx’s chief commercial officer, told The Defiant.

German authorities appear to have unloaded $483.8 million worth of BTC in 16 days

Sizeable Bitcoin transfers from wallets linked to German authorities have also spooked investors.

On January 30, German police announced they seized 50,000 BTC ($2.1 billion at the time) in Bitcoin from an individual who worked for Movie2k, a popular website that distributed pirated movies between 2008 and 2013. The individual had been in custody since being arrested on suspicion of money laundering in 2019 and recently agreed to transfer his BTC assets to German authorities while cooperating with police.

One wallet flagged by Arkham as belonging to the German government began making large transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges on June 19, sparking fear in the markets. So far, the wallet has downloaded 8,774 BTC ($483.8 million at current prices), including 4,774 BTC since the beginning of July.

the-challenging German government wallet BTC balance history. Source: Arkham Intelligence.

About four hours ago, the wallet transferred 547,439 BTC, worth $30 million, to Flow Traders, a market-making firm.

“Taking into account previous police liquidations such as the Silk Road case, they did not result in a sustained catastrophic price drop, which indicates that the market tends to maintain sufficient liquidity to absorb the liquidation,” Lai said.

Source

Markets

Crypto Markets Rebound as Spot Bitcoin ETFs Attract Massive Inflows

Published

11 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Crypto Markets Rebound Ahead of Early Ethereum ETF Approval

This week saw $722 million worth of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows, including the largest daily inflow in a month.

Cryptocurrency markets rallied on Wednesday, driven by inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3% over the past 24 hours to last change hands at $65,200, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum (ETH) is up 2% and is trading at $3,471. Solana (SUN) and Polkadot (POINT) increased by 4%.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $422 million in daily inflows on Tuesday, the highest in the past 30 days, according to Far side data, . The all-time record for a single day was $1.05 billion on March 12.

Among Tuesday’s top contributors, BlackRock’s IBIT led with $260 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $61 million. This week has already seen more than $722 million in inflows.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Worldcoin (WLD) led with a 28% increase, followed by Helium (HNT) with 20% and Lido DAO (LDO) with 15%.

Worldcoin, a decentralized identity project led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced is extending the lockups for early investors and team members. This means that tokens will be gradually released through 2029, instead of the original 2027 plan. Token unlocks are generally seen as a negative because they increase supply and early investors can sell their tokens for profit.

Meanwhile, XRP, the token of the XRP Ledger network, jumped 8% after the CME and CF benchmarks introduced new indices and reference rates for XRP.

U.S. stocks faced a downturn on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell 2%.

Source

Markets

Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days

Published

11 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days

Crypto markets appear to have been taken over by the bulls as major tokens have surged above their crucial resistance zone. Bitcoin surged above $65,000 while Ethereum was above $3,500, and XRP, which had remained passive for quite some time, surged over 40% in the past few days to hit $0.6. The uptrend has been captured in most altcoins, with Worldcoin (WLD), Arweave (AR), and Injective (INJ) leading the rally. Here’s what to expect for these tokens in the coming days.

Worldcoin (WLD) Price Analysis

O Worldcoin Price has been trading inside a descending wedge since it marked a new ATH near $12 in the final days of Q1 2024. The recent price action helped the price break out of the upper resistance of the wedge, breaking above the crucial resistance zone between $2.21 and $2.39. Market sentiments have changed, but technicals suggest that the bulls may remain passive for a while, which could offer some room for a bearish pullback.

The price broke out of the wedge with a significant increase in volume, but the current volume suggests that the bulls have taken a step back. Meanwhile, the RSI is about to reach the upper boundary, which could attract bearish forces. Additionally, the DMI has undergone a bullish crossover, but the decline in the ADX suggests that the rally may remain consolidated above the gains. Therefore, the WLD price is expected to maintain a horizontal consolidation between $3 and $3.3 and trigger a fresh rally to $4.4 during the next bullish rally.

Arweave (AR) Price Analysis

Arweave formed a strong base around $25, which helped the rally trigger a recovery during the bearish attack. Mt. Gox and German terror forced the price to fall below $20. However, the recent price action has brought the altcoin within the bullish range and raised expectations of maintaining a decent uptrend for a few more days.

AR price has hit one of the major resistances around $30 to $31.5, which could act as a strong base once overcome. The buying volume is slowly increasing, which could keep the bullish hopes for the rally high. Moreover, the supertrend has just flashed a buy signal, indicating a clean reversal of the trend. Therefore, AR price seems primed to maintain a healthy uptrend and rally above $40. However, if the bulls maintain a similar trend, making new highs above $50 may not be a tedious task for the bulls.

Price Analysis of Injective (INJ)

Injective price has been showing sharp strength since the beginning of the year and hence, the recent turnaround is expected to revive a good uptrend going forward. The bears engulfed the rally to a large extent, but the recent price action suggests that the bulls have regained their dominance. Therefore, INJ price is expected to maintain a strong uptrend with a bearish interference on the way down.

INJ price has surged above the lower support zone and has registered consecutive bullish candles. Although the volume is below the required levels, the OBV is maintaining a sharp uptrend. Furthermore, the Ichimoku cloud lead span B is heading towards the lead span A and a healthy crossover indicates the start of a new uptrend. However, INJ price may be out of the bears’ reach once it secures the resistance zone between $30.77 and $32.12, which seems to be on the horizon.

Source

Markets

Ethereum at $3.5K, Exchange Supply Hits 34-Month High

Published

11 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Ethereum at $3.5K, Exchange Supply Hits 34-Month High

Ethereum (ETH) supply on exchanges has hit a 34-month high as the asset’s price surpassed the $3,500 mark.

ETH has risen 2.3% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $3,490 at the time of writing. The second-largest cryptocurrency — with a market cap of $419 billion — briefly touched an intraday high of $3,517 earlier today.

ETH Price, Whale Activity, RSI, and Exchange Supply – July 17 | Source: Santiment

Ethereum’s daily trading volume also increased by 7.6% to reach $19.8 billion.

According to data provided by Santiment, the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has reached $19.52 million ETH. This level was last seen in September 2021, when the asset was trading around the same price.

On the other hand, data from the market intelligence platform shows that the number of whale transactions has fallen by 12% in the last day — falling from 8,730 to 7,629 unique transactions per day.

The move shows that the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has been increasing with small deposits rather than large transactions from whales.

Additionally, the ETH Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering at the 60-mark, per Santiment. The indicator shows that Ethereum is slightly overbought at this price point, but it may not be in a critical position due to its large market cap.

One of the main drivers of Ethereum price increase is ETH spot expectations ETFs in the US Investment products are scheduled to start trading on July 23rd.

Source

Markets

Bits + Beeps: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Cryptocurrencies After the Assassination Attempt

Published

11 months ago

17 July, 2024

FinCrypt Staff

Bits + Bips: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Crypto After the Assassination Attempt

Also, how much will the Fed cut rates (and when)? What will be the inflows into ETH ETFs? And what is the near future for Bitcoin?

Posted on July 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST.

Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Capsules, Source, Podcast Addict, Pocket molds, Amazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart, Alex Kruger and Joe McCann, joined by guest Jack Platts, dive into the market reaction to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, analyzing how this event will influence the 2024 US presidential election and the cryptocurrency markets.

They also cover potential rate cuts: Could there be a cut in July? How big could the September rate cut be? Could the decision be influenced by the upcoming election?

They also give their predictions on what percentage of BTC ETF inflows the ETH ETFs will reach, and James talks about what he expects for Grayscale’s ETHE (hint: his outlook would be positive for ETH).

Finally, they delve into what’s next for Bitcoin as the German government runs out of BTC and Mt. Gox distributions begin. Just now?

Program Highlights:

Whether Trump’s shooting decided the election and whether the event caused a “flight to safety”
How election markets are becoming a place to watch election probabilities and whether cryptocurrencies “lean right”
Whether rate cuts will occur in July or September and by how much they will cut: 25 bps or 50 bps
How Joe sees the relationship between global liquidity cycles, rate cuts, and the potential rise of Bitcoin
What are the new updates about Ethereum ETFs and their expected launch?
Why Solana Hasn’t Performed Significantly Better Since Trump News
What Market Breadth Indicates About the Current Market Rally and the Impact of Rates on Small Caps
Everyone’s predictions on ETH ETF inflows and how much outflow we’ll see on Grayscale’s ETHE
What’s Next for BTC After German Government Exits Bitcoin and Mt. Gox Giveaways Starting This Week