News
Why is Bitcoin falling? Cryptocurrency selloff brings BTC price below $60,000
Top line
Bitcoin fell on Monday to its lowest price since May 3, extending a mid-year sell-off that has cut into the leading cryptocurrency’s strong returns following January’s historic approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
It was a bad June for Bitcoin.
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Main aspects
Bitcoin fell nearly 7% as of 6:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time, or 2:30 PM ET, trading at around $59,800 before recovering to around $60,200 shortly thereafter (cryptocurrency price movements are generally measured in GMT as the digital assets are constantly exchanged).
Bitcoin is now down 11% in June, but remains up 42% year to date, with the gains largely concentrated around the ETF approval.
The recent losses were apparently catalyzed by early selling tied to Japan’s long-shuttered Mt. Gox exchange. impending return of nearly $9 billion in bitcoin to creditors and the German government reported selling hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency.
Other cryptocurrencies also fell on Monday, as Ether, Binance Coin and Solana all fell 2.8% or more.
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Surprising fact
According to data from FactSet, Bitcoin withdrawals at cryptocurrency exchanges exceeded deposits by $522 million from Wednesday to Sunday, indicating that a number of bitcoin holders are cashing out their investments.
Crucial quote
“Crypto bears have gotten louder again,” Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra wrote to clients on Monday. “After months of euphoria for Bitcoin ETFs, the market suddenly feels bearish,” continued the Bernstein Group, which maintains a highly bullish price target of $200,000 for bitcoin, expecting prices to more than triple.
Key background
Bitcoin prices have risen nearly 300% since late 2022, with much of its gains coming from the hype around spot Bitcoin ETFs. ETFs were a crucial step in bitcoin’s entry into the mainstream, as traditional fund managers like BlackRock and Fidelity created low-fee funds to allow investors to invest directly in the price of bitcoin through typical intermediaries, without having to go directly to cryptocurrency exchanges. buy bitcoin. Bitcoin is far the most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion.