Bitcoin plummets below $55K as Mt Gox moves its BTCs

The Bitcoin price (BTC) fell below 55,000 dollarsa decrease of 7% over 24 hours. The defunct crypto exchange Mt Gox has moved nearly 50,000 tokenssuggesting a selling pressure coming soon.

This Friday morning, the Bitcoin (BTC) price is trading at around $54,000, down 7% over 24 hours and 12% over 7 days. The queen of crypto-currencies hadn’t reached this level since last February.

The downturn comes as defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, which is expected to finally pay off its creditors, has begun moving digital coins to a new wallet.

More than 47,000 bitcoins, worth more than $2.3 billion at current prices, have indeed been transferred from its cold wallet to a new address, the renowned on-chain analytics firm Arkham sur X reported overnight.

BREAKING

Mt Gox moves 47,228 BTC ($2.71 billion) from cold storage to a new wallet. pic.twitter.com/3ZdSlC1IX2

– Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 5, 2024

All in all, Mt Gox, which collapsed abruptly in February 2014, should, after many long years, repay 140,000 BTC, or nearly $7 billion, to its creditors. The latter would thus be in a position to exert significant selling pressure on the cryptocurrency price following the repayment. Bitcoiners remain confident, however, given that Mt Gox’s customers are long-standing Bitcoin users.

Uncertainty over Federal Reserve’s policy outlook would also worry BTC holders. On Wednesday, the central bank released the minutes of its meeting last month, indicating that it seemed reluctant to cut interest rates until further data showed that inflation was moving sustainably towards its 2% target. The Fed will release US employment data today.

In addition, the slowdown in inflows to Bitcoin spot ETFs approved earlier this year has weighed on the price of the digital coin. Since the beginning of June, almost $10 billion has been withdrawn from this type of fund, according to data provided by Sosovalue.

There’s just a general lack of buzz in the crypto markets right now. Most of the news currently spreading, for example the Mt. Gox sale, is more bearish in nature,” commented Stefan von Haenisch, head of trading at OSL on Bloomberg.

Although investors remain confident in the medium term, the Bitcoin price could thus continue to decline this month after reaching a new ATH of over $73,000 in March 2024.

If I were investing in crypto, knowing that one of the biggest hurdles is going to disappear in July, I think that’s a reason to expect a pretty sharp rebound in the second half of the year,” said FS Insight’s Tom Lee yesterday, on CNBC.

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