Bitcoin and Ether Suffer Significant Losses
The cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp decline on Thursday. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) led this downturn, erasing gains from the previous week and raising concerns among investors.
Bitcoin has fallen below the $64,000 threshold, marking a nearly 4% drop in the past 24 hours. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has dropped more than 9% to $3,138.
Other major cryptocurrencies also experienced losses. BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, and TON all fell between 4% and 8% in the last 24 hours. The only token among the top 20 with minimal gains was Tron’s TRX, which saw an increase of less than 1%.
Massive Liquidations Reported
Coinglass reports that the digital asset market has faced over $300 million in liquidations within the past 24 hours. In the last four hours, an additional $17.74 million in liquidations occurred. Binance, the largest crypto exchange, reported nearly $100 million in liquidations over the past 12 hours.
Link to US Stock Market Performance
The recent downturn in the crypto market parallels the underperformance of the U.S. stock market on Wednesday. Bloomberg attributes this decline to waning interest in artificial intelligence, which has impacted overall investor confidence.
Benjamin Celermajer, co-chief investment officer at Magnet Capital, noted that negative performance in U.S. stocks tends to affect sentiment in the cryptocurrency market as well.
Ethereum ETF Launch and Grayscale Outflows
Despite the launch of eight new Ethereum ETFs on July 23, Ether’s price declined. The ETFs initially attracted $106 million, but $133.16 million flowed out the next day, according to SoSoValue. Grayscale’s ETHE also saw significant outflows, amounting to $810 million over the past two trading sessions.
Peter Schiff's Market Concerns
Financial analyst Peter Schiff has voiced concerns about the state of the cryptocurrency market, along with gold and silver. Schiff predicts a challenging period ahead, noting that despite the introduction of ETFs, Ether has dropped 9% and Bitcoin 4% in the past day.
Schiff warns of a potential market crash, particularly if the Federal Reserve delays rate cuts, which could trigger a stock market crash and recession. Gold, though experiencing a smaller decline of nearly 2%, may also be affected by broader market sell-offs.
Despite the introduction of new ETFs, the crypto market remains highly volatile and susceptible to broader economic factors, raising concerns about its stability and future performance.