On the evening of October 10, the price of the leading cryptocurrency fell below $59,000 before rebounding above $60,000. The selling pressure was triggered by disappointing macroeconomic data from the US and a lawsuit from the SEC against market maker Cumberland.
The regulator accused the firm of operating as an “unregistered dealer” in cryptocurrency transactions. According to the agency’s statement, the company profited from the sale of digital assets, interpreting them as “commodity exchanges.”
Consumer inflation data effectively ruled out a 50 basis point rate cut by the Fed in November, according to Bloomberg. The negative sentiment was mitigated by a jump in unemployment benefit claims from 225,000 to a 14-month high of 258,000.
The weakening risk appetite in global financial markets led to an increase in daily outflows from BTC-ETF from $40.6 million to $120.8 million. The negative trend continued for the third consecutive day.
The funding rate for perpetual contracts fell to 0.0015% from 0.006–0.01% prior to the macroeconomic data release.
Analysts at CryptoQuant recorded a transfer of 63,500 BTC ($3.86 billion) to exchanges from October 7 to 9, which may explain the negative trend in the following days.
Technical analyst Ali Martinez estimated that Bitcoin whales sold 30,000 BTC ($1.83 billion) from October 8 to 10.
#Bitcoin whales have sold or redistributed around 30,000 $BTC in the past 72 hours, totaling $1.83 billion! pic.twitter.com/y9FsARYrmM
— Ali (@ali_charts) October 10, 2024
However, Santiment noted that most traders viewed the drop in the digital gold’s price to a three-week low as a buying opportunity.
? Bitcoin has dropped as low as $58.9K today, returning to a 3-week low. However, traders are identifying this as a dip buy opportunity. The narrative flipped to bullish particularly after the US CPI report announced still likely expected rate cuts. pic.twitter.com/Yet0YTjeiL
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) October 10, 2024
Glassnode has previously warned of the cryptocurrency market’s susceptibility to increased volatility.
Earlier, Bitwise outlined conditions for Bitcoin’s rise above $80,000 by the end of the year.