Bitcoin Rides New $600M GBTC Load, BTC Price Hits 2-Month Low
After Wall Street opened on January 23, Bitcoin (BTC) hit its lowest level since early December amid growing anger over a market selloff.
FTX heats up when bitcoin sinks
Following data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC's price action on Bitstamp fell to $38,505.
Having barely recovered at the time of writing, Bitcoin faced a now-familiar cocktail of institutional selling and low demand for nearly two months of gains.
Attention has focused on Greyscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a massive investment vehicle that still has more than $20 billion in assets despite billions of dollars worth of bitcoin down this month.
On January 23, approximately another 15,200 BTC ($ 590 million) was transferred from the known GBTC holdings to the custodian Coinbase, according to the crypto information company Arkham.
Grayscale deposited 15,222 $BTC($588.5M) into #CoinbasePrime again 10 minutes ago.
According to Arkham, #Grayscale currently holds 535,755 $BTC ($20.68B). pic.twitter.com/Oq9RglF7Fz
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 23, 2024
This was slightly lower than the previous day, but as the final figures are yet to be confirmed, commentators are skeptical.
“At least less than yesterday,” wrote popular trader Diane CryptoTrades in a response on X (formerly Twitter).
“Yesterday's net flows were slightly negative across all ETFs, so other ETFs are still doing well.”
Daan CryptoTrades cites the performance of the United States' newest space, Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
Others blamed forced liquidations, not GBTC operator Greyscale, as well as the loading of FTX by the defunct exchange, which itself had large holdings of GBTC before its liquidation.
“Remember selling GBTC for BTC will not lower the value of Bitcoin. Selling in USD and keeping in USD works,” explained Adam Buck, CEO of Bitcoin technology firm Blockstream.
“People selling US dollars are forced, loss selling like FTX. So I'm not sure there is much USD net selling on FTX's $1bil loss selling.
Will the Bitcoin ETF “Sell the News” Reaction Disappear Soon?
On the topic of spot liquidity, BTC longs had another day of pain.
Related: Spot Bitcoin ETFs Discovered by Arkham On-Chain Addresses
Total longs removed in the two days from Jan. 23 to Jan. 23 stood at $110 million, up from $110 million at the time of writing, according to the latest data from statistical resource CoinGlass.
In this way, the optimists choose to take a long-term view, which means that the current weak sources will not put pressure on the market indefinitely.
We're now moving on to celebrating the news, but it's still not there.
Significant psychological shift today, bears celebrating, bulls angry as bears celebrate.
I've been around for a while so I'm still relaxing and waiting for a lower price. https://t.co/RU4IJ3oyCk
— Cold Blood Shiller (@ColdBloodShill) January 22, 2024
Eric Balchunas, a dedicated ATF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, sees reason to celebrate Bitcoin's 2023 performance.
Over the past 12 months, BTC/USD has delivered 75% returns – far more than popular investments like stocks.
“How spoiled are you living in anger now? If you don't know perspective, you will be in a state of perpetual misery,” he wrote in part of X's comments.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and business activity involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision.
