Bitcoin remains in the outtray this week, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency slumping another 3% to bring week-on-week performance to a bruising -10%.
The bitcoin market’s bearish turn comes as bitcoin funds tied up for over a decade in the Mt Gox administration estate begin to flood the market.
Trustees of the collapsed former bitcoin exchange are beginning the multibillion-dollar customer reimbursement scheme, with fears of heightened selling pressure to follow.
Arkham Intelligence flagged an on-chain transaction from a cold storage wallet owned by Mt Gox to a new wallet, suggesting the transfer of funds is underway.
BREAKING
Mt Gox moves 47,228 BTC ($2.71 billion dollars) from cold storage to a new wallet. pic.twitter.com/3ZdSlC1IX2
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 5, 2024
While there is no telling what the fundamental impact these distributions will have, crypto traders, who are well known for their knee-jerk reactions, appear to be taking a negative view.
The dip in bitcoin’s price has led to considerable long liquidations on the options markets. Over $300 million in long positions was wiped from the market today, following on from yesterday’s $416 million gutting and Wednesday’s $185 million wipeout.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was swapping for $55,363 with a market capitalisation of $1.09 trillion.