Markets
Bitcoin (BTC) Drops to $60,000 as Mt. Gox Threatens
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $60,000 during European morning trading on Wednesday, a 4% drop in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin was the hardest hit by the decline in major cryptocurrencies. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), fell nearly 3.3%. These declines came after U.S. spot BTC ETFs snapped a five-day streak of inflows, recording $13 million in outflows on Tuesday. There are also fears of further selling pressure from distributions from defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox. “The Mt. Gox outflow is also expected this week,” QCP Capital said. “This surplus of up to 140,000 BTC is likely to continue to weigh on markets, especially since the exact release schedule is unknown at this time.”
US election-themed meme tokens are taking a hit, with several prices down nearly 95% from peak prices. The Solana-based Boden (BODEN), a play on Joe Biden, has fallen 70% in the past week, according to data from CoinGecko. BODEN is now down 80% in the past 30 days and is back to levels last seen in early March, when it was just issued. Even Donald Trump-themed tokens have fallen, despite Trump’s election chances rising after the debate. The political finance (PoliFi) sector has contracted 11% in the past 24 hours, defying expectations of a recovery after the June 27 debate. Austin Freimuth, a research analyst at Messari, said the significant event could be Trump’s selection of his running mate, if that triggers the creation of new meme coins.
The crypto industry begins a major growth phase and is in a much better position than two years agoinvestment bank Architect Partners said in a quarterly report released last week. The value of the cryptocurrency industry soared by more than $750 billion in the first half of the year, the company said. The report describes cryptocurrencies as “the stepchild of the internet” and claims that they “exceed the value of the internet at the same stage of their respective life cycles.” Cryptocurrencies and the internet, both disruptive technologies, have very similar characteristics, the report said, noting that the cryptocurrency market is recovering from what’s been called crypto winter much faster than the internet rebounded after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.