Bitcoin slumps to $54K as Mt. Gox moves $2.7B in BTC

July 5, 2024
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Bitcoin slumps to $54K as Mt. Gox moves $2.7B in BTC

Photo credit: bushalex/Freepik

Bitcoin (BTC) fell sharply during the early hours of June 5 as collapsed exchange Mt. Gox moved billions of dollars in BTC to a new wallet address amid the company’s planned repayments.

The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell over 4% to $53,600, reaching its lowest price since Feb. 26, according to charting platform TradingView. It has since recovered slightly to $54,363.99, yet still down almost 8% in the past 24 hours at the time of writing, per CoinGecko data.

Bitcoin’s price action comes as Mt. Gox transferred 47,229 BTC, worth $2.71 billion, from cold storage to a new wallet, according to blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence. The exchange is scheduled to start paying back creditors this month, with a total repayment amount of $8.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.

The planned repayments have sparked fears of a massive sell-off, contributing to recent declines in Bitcoin’s price. While some analysts have attempted to alleviate concerns, with some noting the potential selling pressure could be limited, investors remained uneasy given the sheer volume of Bitcoin that could hit the market.

Since the announcement of repayments last month, Bitcoin has fallen 12.1% in a week and 23.9% in a month. Some market commentators worry that creditors, who have been waiting a decade for their assets, will immediately sell their Bitcoin, which was trading at $600 when the exchange was hacked in 2014 and is now worth over $50,000.

However, other analysts argue that the amount of Bitcoin likely to be sold is closer to $4.5 billion in value, potentially mitigating the impact on the market.

Community: ‘Buy the dip’

Mentions of “buy the dip” on socials spiked over the last two days as Bitcoin stumbles further below $60,000.

(Source: Santiment)

“The crowd is showing signs of seeing this as a buy-the-dip opportunity,” crypto research firm Santiment wrote on X. “Ideally, we wait for their enthusiasm to settle down. The time to buy is when they are impatient and skeptical.”

As of 4:00 a.m. GST, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, a barometer of market sentiment for Bitcoin and the wider crypto industry, sits in the “Fear” zone with a reading of 29 out of 100.

Read more: Spot Bitcoin ETFs return to net outflows, BTC price dips

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