Bitcoin prices bounced back today after falling to a four-month low. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
Bitcoin prices bounced back today, climbing after falling to their lowest in over four months amid weak market conditions.
The world’s most prominent digital currency reached as much as $56,856.61 this afternoon, according to CoinMarketCap data.
At this point, the cryptocurrency was up more than 5.8% after falling to $53,717.34, its lowest value since late February, shortly after midnight EST, additional CoinMarketCap figures show.
After rising to the aforementioned daily high above $56,800, the digital asset experienced some volatility, but it has held on to most of the gains it generated earlier today.
When explaining bitcoin’s recent price fluctuations, several analysts stated that the digital currency had become oversold when it declined over the last 24 hours.
Several media reports pointed to the announcement that the trustee for Mt. Gox had started making payments to certain creditors as the reason why the digital currency fell to its lowest in over four months within the last 24 hours.
Tim Enneking, managing partner of Psalion, commented on this development, but emphasized that several factors contributed to losses in bitcoin.
“In a market that was already relatively weak because of post-ATH consolidation, the usual summer doldrums and the SEC teasing out the actual launch date of spot ETH ETF trading, concerns regarding Mt. Gox BTC recipients dumping (whether well founded or not) clearly constituted the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and dropped spot BTC prices down hard through $60k almost to $53k,” he said via emailed comments.
Armando Aguilar, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, also emphasized that multiple variables contributed to declines in the digital currency markets.
“As new supply hit the market from Mt. Gox Trustee, it showed BTC transfers to unknown addresses, and the German Government also gearing to offload additional supply. A low fear and greed index scared the market, all these factors made the prices plummet across the board,” he said via emailed comments.
Once prices had declined, it resulted in bitcoin being oversold, which caused the digital currency to rally, Aguilar added.
Julio Moreno, head of research for CryptoQuant, also chimed in, offering a different take on the situation.
“Prices have fallen mostly due to selling/profit taking from large investors (whales) and mid-size miners,” he stated via Telegram.
“Selling from Mt. Gox and other entities (German Government) is relatively small compared to the overall pool of money in Bitcoin,” Moreno added.
“Several On-chain metrics signaled oversold territory after prices reached $53K, which could be why they rebounded sharply. For example, traders’ unrealized profits reached negative levels not seen since the FTX collapse.”
He included the chart below, which leverages CryptoQuant data, to illustrate these developments:
Bitcoin’s On-Chain Trader Realized Price and Profit-Loss Margin
Moreno also emphasized that the amount of money seized by the U.S. and German governments represents a very small fraction (roughly 1.6%) of the total realized value of bitcoin.
The difference can be visualized using the chart below:
Bitcoin’s realized cap versus the value of bitcoin seized by U.S. and German governments
Going forward, the Mt. Gox sales may not be as large a headwind for the cryptocurrency markets as some might think, said Enneking, who noted that the investors who get their bitcoin back will probably not sell it right away.
“Unless one assumes that all Mt. Gox BTC recipients are idiots,” “they will not all abruptly dump their long-awaited BTC immediately upon receipt – and since they’ve waited 10 years already, what’s another couple months waiting for the price to recover?” he said.
“So, at some level, BTC is clearly oversold and, apparently, the market believes that level is in the mid-to-high 50’s,” claimed Enneking.
“Regardless, once the BTC are actually distributed and the sky miraculously fails to fall, BTC will enjoy an immediate and very healthy rebound!” he predicted.
Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, EOS and SOL.