Bitcoin (BTC) continues to face selling pressure nearly two weeks on from the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s exchange-traded fund approvals.
Though the benchmark cryptocurrency traded generally flat over the weekend, early Monday trades pushed the BTC/USD pair 1.6% lower.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was changing hands below $40,900, a 16% decline from the year-to-date high.
Bitcoin’s sluggish performance is partially attributed to substantial cash outflows hitting the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Per the latest data shared by Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas on Friday, total GBTC outflows have exceeded $2.8 billion, with the likelihood of more being tallied over the weekend.
Investors are heading for GBTC’s exits due to its high management fees of 1.5%, compared to less than half a percentage point offered by competitors including BlackRock and Ark Invest.
But for now, GBTC remains easily the largest ETF in the space, with $23 billion in assets under management (AUM) compared to nearest competitor BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT)’s $1.4 billion in AUM.
Aside from GBTC redemptions, bitcoin’s price is being affected by a bout of profit-taking following the 170% rally throughout 2023.
Bitcoin’s price peak in the days preceding the SEC’s sweeping ETDF approvals – Graph: tradingview.com
Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency space, Ethereum (ETH)’s fortunes have reversed after briefly outperforming bitcoin earlier this month.
The ETH/USD pair penned red candlesticks on both Saturday and Sunday before suffering a 1.8% drop this morning.
Week on week, ETH and BTC are both around 4% lower, though the broader blue-chip altcoin space has fared worse.
Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) all lost high single digits to their respective market capitalisations in the past week, while Avalanche (AVAX)’s losses exceeded 12%.
Global cryptocurrency market cap currently stands at $1.61 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 51.3%