Markets
Bitcoin Reclaims $66K, But Mt. Gox Selling Pressure Persists
Bitcoin has regained $66,000 after Tuesday’s drop below $65,500, but ongoing selling pressure related to Mt. Gox has tempered the chances of a sustained rally. Mt. Gox has moved over $3 billion in BTC between wallets, according to Arkham data. It ultimately sent $130 million to cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Lenders are expected to immediately sell their BTC upon receipt, which is why coin movements tend to weigh on bitcoin’s price. BTC is trading around $66,500 at press time, little changed from 24 hours ago. The broader cryptocurrency market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), is also little changed.
Ether ETFs in the United States recorded net inflows of approximately $107 million on its first day of tradingwith volumes exceeding $1 billion. The BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) led with inflows of $266.5 million, followed by Bitwise’s Ethereum ETF (ETHW) at $204 million. Total trading volume was about a fifth of the bitcoin equivalents experienced when they debuted in January. Many market observers had speculated that volume and flow for ETH ETFs would be disappointing due to the lack of a staking mechanism. Ether traded just below $3,500 during Asian and European mornings, about 1.3% lower than 24 hours ago.
There are few bitcoin miners with the same power at their disposal as Iris EnergyCanaccord said in a report released Tuesday. “The company is building 510 MW of data centers in 2024, has secured 2,160 MW of energy capacity, and has a development pipeline of over 1 GW,” analysts wrote. The brokerage raised its target for the company to $15 from $12, while maintaining its buy rating. Iris Energy was trading 3% higher at $11.23 in pre-market trading on the Nasdaq. Earlier this month, Iris shares plunged 14% after a short seller said its Childress, Texas, site was not suitable for hosting AI or high-performance computing. “We believe management will be opportunistic in expanding the use case for its data centers beyond bitcoin mining and is well-positioned from a power, cooling, and networking perspective,” Canaccord wrote.