There are indications the bull market might have returned as digital asset inflows picked up and Bitcoin returned to the $62,000 mark. Meanwhile, the German government has finally offloaded its remaining Bitcoin holdings.
Bitcoin and Ether lead $17.8 billion crypto inflows
Inflows into digital asset investment products have hit a new record of over $17.8 billion year-to-date (YTD), pointing to the start of a potential crypto market recovery.
The new record comes after cryptocurrency investment products saw a total of $1.44 billion worth of inflows last week.
According to CoinShares data, the year-to-date inflows for 2024 have reached $17.8 billion, significantly surpassing the previous record of $10.6 billion set in 2021.
According to the report, the lion’s share of the inflows is attributed to United States-based buyers, while Switzerland has also bought record amounts of digital assets. CoinShares said:
“Regionally, the US led with US$1.3bn for the week, although the positive sentiment was seen across all other countries, most notable being Switzerland (a record this year for inflows), Hong Kong and Canada with US$58m, US$55m and US$24m respectively.”
Bitcoin reclaims $62,000, analysts say worst is “likely behind us”
The price of Bitcoin has reclaimed ground above the $62,000 mark, and analysts say the worst of the selling could be over, with German BTC sales over and Mt. Gox payments all but priced in.
Bitcoin BTCUSD has rallied 5.2% in the last 24 hours, bouncing off two-month lows of $53,500 on July 4, and is currently changing hands for $62,550, per TradingView data.
Ben Simpson, the founder of crypto education platform Collective Shift told Cointelegraph that he believed Bitcoin’s “local bottom” had now been formed and believes BTC is now headed for a continued uptrend.
Simpson said the price of Bitcoin had been hammered by a deluge of “forced selling” — much of which stemmed from nearly $3 billion in sales from the German government and negative sentiment toward some $8.5 billion in Mt. Gox creditor repayments.
Moving forward, Simpson looked to several key catalysts as being bullish for Bitcoin’s price in the coming weeks and months.
“Jerome Powell is hinting towards potentially lowering rates at some point soon. We’ve also got the S&P 500 ripping to new highs amongst all of this as well as strong Bitcoin ETF inflows flowing back in.”
German government’s Bitcoin balance falls to zero
After weeks of dumping its seized Bitcoin on the market, the German government had nothing left to sell as of July 12.
According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the German government sent its final 3,846.05 BTC for liquidation on July 12. As Arkham previously reported, the government likely started selling more than $2 billion worth of BTC through Coinbase Global, Kraken and Bitstamp three weeks ago.
The German selling spree is believed to have contributed to Bitcoin’s large sell-off in recent weeks. Since early June, the largest cryptocurrency has fallen from around $71,000 to below $58,000, including a brief dip below $55,000 on July 7.
Not every member of the German government has supported the mass liquidations. German lawmaker and Bitcoin activist Joana Cotar argued that the seized BTC could have been part of a “strategic reserve currency” to protect against risks in the traditional financial system.
Additional reporting by Felix Ng, Sam Bourgi and Geraint Price.
