Bitcoin has approached $66,000, wiping out all of last week’s gains, with sentiment dampened as a large transfer of assets from wallets linked to the U.S. government sparked fears among traders of impending selling pressure. Bitcoin fell as much as 5% in the past 24 hours, recovering slightly as the U.S. Department of Justice moved $2 billion worth of bitcoin to two new wallets.
Tracking service Arkham estimates that at least one of the wallets is likely a custodial service. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading around $66,550, down 4.3% from 24 hours ago. The broader cryptocurrency market fell 3.5%, according to the CoinDesk 20 index.
Spot Ethereum ETFs saw negative net outflows in their first week as large outflows from the existing Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) overwhelmed interest in competing products. Comparable Bitcoin funds debuted in January and attracted $1 billion in net inflows in their first four days, though they also suffered large outflows from the previous existing Grayscale fund.
Overall, spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $340 million, with more than $1.5 billion of that coming from Grayscale Trust, according to Farside Investors. Ethereum outperformed the broader digital asset market after Monday’s decline. Ethereum was trading at $3,330, down 1.67% compared to the CD20’s 3.5%.
Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency pledge could mean that the near-term price of Bitcoin is tied to the expected outcome of the November presidential election, investment bank Jefferies said.
Trump has pledged to keep a strategic Bitcoin reserve and never sell government-seized Bitcoin (BTC), he said at the BTC 2024 event in Nashville. “His overtures to the industry could lead to the near-term price of Bitcoin being tied to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election,” Jefferies analysts Jonathan Peterson and Joe Dickstein wrote. Jefferies noted Trump’s promises to pick crypto-friendly regulators, form a presidential advisory council for the cryptocurrency industry, and make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet.”