Markets
Cryptocurrency Markets Slump on Mt. Gox Refund Fears
Over $313 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours.
Cryptocurrency markets were trading lower on Monday morning after net weekly outflows of $584 million from digital investment products, bringing the total to more than $1.1 billion over the past two weeks.
Bitcoin fell 5% to trade below $61,000, while Ethereum it fell by almost 6%. Solana fell 4% and Polkadot 2%
Data from CoinGlass Shows that in the last 24 hours 92,311 traders were liquidated for a total of $313 million. The largest single liquidation of $15.36 million occurred on Binance, involving the BTC-USDT pair.
According to the latest information from CoinShares relationshipGlobal exchange-traded products saw their lowest trading volumes since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US in January, at just $6.9 billion for the week.
“We believe this is a reaction to investor pessimism about the prospect of interest rate cuts by the Fed this year,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares. He added that continued outflows suggest “a real correction is underway.”
Michael van de Poppe, CEO of MN Trading, you think this correction is driven by news for Bitcoin and altcoins.
“Maybe because of the news about Mt. Gox. Refunds starting in July,” he said. “Markets are falling substantially, but this event is more than likely going to have some scary overvaluations compared to what it should be. It could be the bottom.”
Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange, suffered a major exploit in 2014, losing 850,000 Bitcoins belonging to 240,000 users. In September 2023, its trustee announced that creditors would receive a partial refund of 142,000 BTC, 143,000 BCH, and fiat currency totaling $510 million by October 2024.
Mt. Gox Users Will Start Receiving Refunds in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) of departure at the beginning of July.
US stock markets are relatively calm, with the S&P 500 up 0.3% and the Nasdaq down 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 1%, second to Yahoo Finance data.
May personal consumption spending data, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, will be released on Friday.