DeFi
Crypto Markets Fall as Institutions Unload Millions in Bitcoin
Institutional investors sold $600 million worth of digital assets last week.
The cryptocurrency market opened to a light but widespread sell-off on Monday.
Top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are down 2% and 2.6% respectively. XRP is the only token in the top ten to record positive price action, jumping 5% on the day.
XRP Price
Most tokens are down less than 10%, with a few notable exceptions, like ZKsync, which is down 20% after airdrop of 17.5% of its token supply and debuted at a market cap of $900 million.
According to the latest weekly digital asset fund feeds from CoinShares reportlast week was the second worst for institutions in 2024. Large entities dumped $600 million in digital assets, “likely due to a more hawkish than expected FOMC meeting, prompting investors to reduce their exposure to assets with a fixed supply.
Last week’s decline among institutional investors was almost entirely focused on Bitcoin, wrote James Butterfill, head of research for CoinShares. BTC was the only digital asset to record outflows, with over $620 million sold.
Ethereum continues its upward trajectory with a fourth consecutive week of accumulation. Most likely spurred by the inevitable launch of Ethereum spot ETFs, institutions purchased $13 million worth of ETH over the past seven days, bringing the yearly total to $94 million.
Smaller tokens have seen negligible outflows and inflows from larger entities, with Solana see $200,000 in outflows – the only asset other than Bitcoin to be sold.
Experts advance prediction of ETH ETF launch date
Ethereum continues to make headlines as the market prepares for an imminent spot ETF approval.
Eric Balchunas, analyst at Bloomberg wrote on June 14, his team brought forward the date when the Ethereum ETF instrument will be available for trading to July 2. Balchunas previously predicted July 4, although SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on June 13 that the product should be live by the end of summer.
According to Balchunas, the SEC sent comments to potential ETF issuers on their S-1 filings late last week. The comments, he wrote, were “pretty light, nothing major” and requested responses within a week.
“Good chance they are working to declare them effective next week and get them off their plate before the holiday weekend,” Balchunas added.