Bitcoin
hovers around $60,000 amid Mt Gox fears; Ether ETF Hype Dips By Investing.com
Investing.com – The price of Bitcoin fell on Thursday, seeing little relief after a major rout last week, as fears of a massive sell-off event stemming from defunct exchange Mt. Gox kept traders averse to the token.
Markets received little support from a Reuters report that the Securities and Exchange Commission could approve exchange-traded funds tied to the spot price of Ether as early as next week.
Broader sentiment towards crypto has also been offset by fears of a US inflation reading that is likely to influence the outlook for interest rates. This notion also kept traders heavily biased towards the dollar.
fell 1.1% in the last 24 hours to $60,918.7 at 01:28 ET (05:28 GMT).
Bitcoin Price Hit by Mt Gox Jitters and Strong Dollar
Liquidators of defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox said they planned to start stealing crypto assets during a 2014 hack as early as early July. Distributions will mainly consist of large amounts of Bitcoin and .
But given that Bitcoin returned to customers will have a substantially higher value than when it was stolen, traders expect recipients of the assets to be more likely to liquidate their holdings, presenting enormous selling pressure on Bitcoin.
Mt Gox liquidators were seen mobilizing around $9 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year. But the number of tokens they hold is much larger.
In addition to the Mt Gox selloff, the anticipation of PCE price index data – which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator – also kept investors on their toes.
The strength of – amid lingering fears of higher U.S. interest rates for longer – has been a major drag on cryptocurrency prices in recent sessions.
Crypto Price Today: Ether Unenthusiastic About ETF Report
Among broader cryptocurrency prices, altcoins also fell as traders remained biased towards the dollar.
The world’s No. 2 token fell 0.4% to $3,374.23, receiving little support from a Reuters report that said the SEC could approve a spot Ether ETF as early as next week.
Optimism over a spot Ether ETF saw the token rise sharply in May. But it has seen it give up much of those gains in the past two weeks as traders questioned how much of a price boost a spot ETF could deliver.
The approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF earlier this year saw the token briefly rise to record highs. But since then Bitcoin has remained within a narrow trading range and struggled to deliver significant returns in the short term.
Enthusiasm around spot Bitcoin ETFs has also waned in recent weeks as crypto investment products have seen two weeks of sharp outflows.
Other altcoins also fell on Thursday, falling between 0.5% and 2.7%.
Among meme tokens, it fell 3.4%, while it lost 3.2%.