Markets
Bitcoin and Broader Market Choppy Ahead of US GDP Report
Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market are choppy ahead of the release of final U.S. gross domestic product data later today. The vast majority of assets among the top 100 coins by market cap are trading in the red.
Bitcoin has, once again, surpassed the $61,000 mark and is currently trading for $60,670 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.
Final gross domestic product data for the United States, the main indicator of whether the economy is growing or declining, is expected to show 1.3% growth. This figure is important because it plays a key role in the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut rates. A strong GDP number would likely reinforce the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged. Conversely, a weak GDP number would likely accelerate the rate-cutting process.
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve’s comment indicated that the Fed will likely cut rates only once this year. This caused a sale in cryptocurrency markets, as investors are wary of investing in risky assets in a high interest rate environment.
As June comes to a close, the month has not been kind to the leading cryptocurrency, as BTC has fallen by about 10% since the start of the month. The Fed’s more hawkish than expected stance has played a key role in this plunge, but it has not been the only factor.
On Monday, it was announced that Mt. Gox creditors will begin receiving refunds from at the beginning of JulyThis has spooked market participants, as nearly $9 billion in Bitcoin will be distributed to investors who have not had access to such funds for over a decade.
Then yesterday the US government sent $240 million of BTC on Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of Coinbase.
In addition to the US government, German authorities have been aggressively selling the BTC they seized. In the last two weeks, the German authorities have almost sold $225 million Bitcoin value.
Bitcoin isn’t the only major cryptocurrency to have lost ground.
Ethereum, BNB, and Solana are down at least 1% early this morning. And of the top 100 coins by market cap on CoinGecko, a sixth coin has seen a gain of more than 2% in the past 24 hours.
Maker, Kaspa and Ethereum Name Service saw a price increase of 7%, 6.7% AND 4.3%respectively, while Injective, Flare and Aave saw their price increase between 2.5% and 3.5%.
By Stacy Elliott.