Bitcoin’s price fell sharply on Friday, peaking near $64,000 and hitting a low of $64,300, according to data from TradingView. This drop coincides with significant withdrawals of $139.88 million from a US-listed bitcoin ETF on Thursday.
SocoValue data shows that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) saw daily net withdrawals of $53 million, while the FidelityWise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) saw withdrawals of $51 million.
There were withdrawals of $32 million from the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, $4 million from the VanEck Bitcoin Trust, and $2 million from the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF.
On the other hand, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust saw $1.5 million in inflows. Throughout the trading day, there were no inflows into the WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin (BTCW), the Franklin Templeton Bitcoin ETF (EZBC), or the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
While this was not the longest run, the most recent records showed that the U.S. spot bitcoin ETF lost money for five consecutive days. The longest run of withdrawals, which reduced the value by $1.2 billion, happened between April 24 and May 2.
Bitcoin price fluctuations have historically been driven by ETF flows But a lot of things have changed in the last few weeks.
The German government, which has transferred about $195 million worth of bitcoin to exchanges since June 19, may be the source of the latest selling pressure, claims Arkham Intelligence. According to the data, the government still holds more than $3 billion worth of bitcoin.
Hedge funds’ exposure to Bitcoin is an additional consideration. The ETC Group’s Head of Research, André Dragosch, claims that for the past 20 trading days, hedge funds have lowered their market exposure to only 0.37, the lowest level since October 2020.
The market can also be affected by macroeconomic variables, such as the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) position on interest rates, which is unlikely to change until later this year. To be sure that inflation is getting closer to its 2% target, the Fed said it needs more data.
These factors could further fuel the bearish sentiment around Bitcoin. At the time of this writing, the price of Bitcoin is around $64,500, down more than 8% over the past month.
