Bitcoin’s Longest Losing Streak of 2024 Casts Cloud Over Crypto

(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin is falling as part of a $500 billion decline in digital assets, raising questions about whether the crypto recovery has peaked.

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The token is flirting with a five-day decline that would be its longest losing streak since October last year. Following Bitcoin’s record high of $73,798 in mid-March, the overall crypto market fell 17% to $2.4 trillion, according to data compiled by CoinGecko and Bloomberg News.

Flurry flows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the prospect of Federal Reserve interest rates staying higher for longer are putting digital assets under pressure. The launch of Hong Kong crypto ETFs last week failed to brighten the mood.

Cash flowing into US funds following the January launch had previously pushed Bitcoin to an all-time high. The group’s overall net inflows now stand at $11.8 billion, following outflows of $169 million so far this month.

Benjamin Celermajer, director of digital asset investment manager Magnet Capital, said many speculators who believed strong ETF flows would continue are now “wiped out of the market”. However, he added that the bull market is not over and Bitcoin will reach new highs by the end of 2024.

There are signs that investors in the derivatives market are expecting less major Bitcoin volatility compared to the volatility that has marred the launch of US ETFs.

The T3 Bitcoin Volatility Index, which uses option prices to give a sense of expected 30-day volatility in the token, and the equivalent gauge for the second-ranked digital asset Ether are at their lowest levels in nearly two months.

Bitcoin was little changed at $61,660 as of 7:10 a.m. in London on Thursday, while Ether was up 2% to $3,009.

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