12.50pm: Bitcoin dominates digital asset fund space despite sharp decline in turnover
Digital asset crypto funds saw US$136mln (£106mln) worth of inflows in the week ending July 7, marking the third net positive week in a row, according to CoinShares data.
Inflows across funds managed by CoinShares, 21 Shares, ProShares and other major crypto funds have increased to US$450mln over the past three weeks, thus fully correcting the previous nine weeks' worth of outflows.
Year-to-date inflows are in net positive territory at US$231mln.
However, CoinShares data shows that turnover substantially weakened last week due cooling crypto prices, totalling US$1bn compared to an average of US$2.5bn in the two weeks prior.
Three-week inflows follow nine-week sell off – Source: CoinShares
Bitcoin and other crypto prices rallied in mid-June after BlackRock formally filed for a bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund with the US regulators.
Spot prices have since died down following numerous setbacks to BlackRock’s plans.
Bitcoin remains far and away the primary crypto asset class among investors, with bitcoin-linked product inflows making up 98% of all inflows.
Ether (ETH)-linked products came in a distant second with US$2.9mln of inflows, while Litecoin (LTC), Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XRP) also saw low levels of inflows.
Blockchain equity finds tracking listed bitcoin miners and other crypto-adjacent companies saw a year-to-date record inflow of US$15mln.
9.30am: Bitcoin goes bearish over weekend
Bitcoin (BTC) is in the midst of its third bearish day in a row after posting small but consistent losses over the weekend.
Having closed Friday on a solid footing at US$30,350, the BTC/USDT pair fell 0.2% on Saturday and 0.4% on Saturday.
This morning’s underwhelming Asia trading window brought the pair lower, and at the time of writing, was swapping for US$30,100.
This is, obviously, still above the US$30,000 support line, thus conforming to the 30k to 31k sideways channel that has marked bitcoin’s performance over the past 2.5 weeks.
Bitcoin sticks to sideways trading channel – Source: currency.com
Additional buyers’ support can be seen at the US$29,600 price point, per Binance’s order book.
As has been the case since mid-June, BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF filing dominates the discussion.
However, with no developments since the world’s largest asset manager refiled its application with the US regulators last Wednesday, bullish sentiment appears to have subsided for now.
This coming Wednesday sees US inflation data being released, which could provide either upside or downside on bitcoin’s price contingent on softer or hotter data.
In the altcoin space, Solana (SOL) has teared ahead despite no clear sign of a catalyst.
Currently the ninth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of US$8.3bn, SOL has rallied 6.5% over the past seven days compared to bitcoin losing 1.8%.
As for Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency had a similarly bearish weekend in tandem with bitcoin, falling 0.8% to US$1,856 from Friday’s close.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at US$1.17tn, with bitcoin dominance totalling 51.6% of the entire market.