Bitcoin Price Stabilizes Amid Mounting Selling Pressure
Bitcoin Prices Hold Steady
Bitcoin price moved little on Wednesday, nursing steep losses from the past week due to fears of selling pressure from the distributions by the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox. The strength of the dollar also weighed on broader crypto prices, as traders remained largely biased towards the greenback in anticipation of key U.S. inflation data expected this Friday, along with a reading on first-quarter economic growth.
Bitcoin rose 0.9% over the past 24 hours to $61,597.0 by 01:30 ET (05:30 GMT). The world’s largest cryptocurrency had dropped as low as $59,000 earlier this week, reflecting a largely negative risk appetite.
Mt. Gox Liquidators Announce Bitcoin Sales to Begin in July
Liquidators of Mt. Gox, the now-defunct crypto exchange that collapsed due to a hack in 2014, announced this week that they will begin distributing tokens stolen from clients in the first week of July. Earlier this year, the liquidators mobilized about $9 billion worth of Bitcoin from cold wallets, indicating a potential distribution was on the horizon. However, the scale of the distributions remains unspecified.
Clients receiving their stolen assets now will do so at much higher prices, which may lead them to sell off these assets, creating significant selling pressure on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash, which will also be distributed by Mt. Gox, faced steep losses this week. The token was already under pressure from reports suggesting that German authorities had begun selling thousands of Bitcoins confiscated from a piracy website.
Broader Crypto Market Sentiment
Overall sentiment towards cryptocurrencies has been under pressure due to waning risk appetite. Traders have pivoted towards more stable assets like the dollar amid fears of high U.S. interest rates. Crypto investment products, especially Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, have experienced two weeks of steep outflows.
Altcoins See Some Gains
Despite the negative sentiment surrounding Bitcoin, some altcoins marked gains this week as potential selling pressure on Bitcoin spurred flows into other crypto assets.
Ether (ETH) rose 0.2% to $3,382.25.
Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) added 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively.
XRP lagged, falling 1%.
Meme Tokens Performance
Among meme tokens,
Shiba Inu (SHIB) rose 1.5%.
Dogecoin (DOGE) added 2.1%.
