Bitcoin extends drop after one of crypto’s worst weeks of 2024

Bitcoin extends drop after one of crypto’s worst weeks of 2024

Price dips below US$63,000 amid six days of outflows from US ETFs and monetary policy uncertainty.

Cracks in the crypto market aligned with doubts over the Federal Reserve’s ability to quickly lower interest rates from a two-decade high. (Freepik pic)
HONG KONG:
Losses are piling up in crypto after the digital-asset market’s second-worst weekly drop of 2024, a reflection of cooling demand for bitcoin exchange-traded funds and uncertainty over monetary policy.

A gauge of the largest 100 digital assets fell about 5% in the seven days through Sunday, the worst such decline since April, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Market leader bitcoin slid below US$63,000 on Monday to a more than one-month low, hurt by a six-day streak of outflows from US ETFs for the token.

The cracks in crypto come amid doubts about the Federal Reserve’s scope to cut interest rates quickly from a two-decade high. For some analysts, the retreat in digital assets is a warning sign for broader risk appetite.

The current crypto market dynamic is “characterised by low volatility, soft volumes, and orderbooks getting unbalanced when prices start to move to the edges of their range,” David Lawant, research head at FalconX, wrote in a note.

The drops in some corners are particularly notable: the run of weekly declines for Ether and Solana are the longest since last year and 2022 respectively.

That’s even as fund companies prepare to launch the first US ETFs investing directly in Ether, the second-ranked cryptoasset. Solana, meanwhile, was very recently a favorite for a variety of digital-asset hedge funds.

Bitcoin hit a record of US$73,798 in March and but is trailing traditional assets such stocks, bonds and gold this quarter.

Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.