Bitcoin
Bitcoin Falls to Four-Month Lows on Sell-Off Fears, Ether Plunges 9%
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bitcoin fell to a four-month low on Friday, breaking below technical supports as traders anticipated a sell-off of long-lost tokens from a defunct Japanese exchange and more selling by leveraged players spooked by the momentum.
The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell more than 8% to $53,523, below chart support around $55,000 and its lowest level since late February.
He’s lost about 12% so far this week, even as many of the risk-sensitive assets he usually tracks, such as the Nasdaq, have gained.
Ether fell 9% to $2,841, its lowest in more than two months.
Media reports said Mt. Gox, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange before it collapsed a decade ago, may start returning bitcoins to creditors, who are seen as likely sellers as the token was worth just hundreds of dollars in 2014.
“Selling pressure is still related to the sell-off by creditors of the failed Mt Gox exchange,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.
“However, the downward acceleration suggests the market is trying to get ahead of creditor flows.”
Analysts have also raised concerns that Joe Biden could be replaced as the Democrats’ presidential nominee by someone less pro-crypto after a shaky debate performance with rival candidate Donald Trump.
Bitcoin had a strong start to the year following the launch of exchange-traded funds in the US, propelling it to a record high of $73,803.25 in mid-March. However, it has struggled since then.
“With an asset that has been range-bound for some time and recently at the lower end of that range, there are a lot of margin positions,” said Justin D’Anethan of digital asset market maker Keyrock, who are forced to sell as prices fall.
“This, of course, creates a cascading effect, pushing prices down even further than in a less leveraged market.”
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee, Tom Westbrook and Sameer Manekar in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Kim Coghill)