Bitcoin (BTC) slipped more than 4% in the past 24 hours to trade near the $58,000 level in Asian afternoon hours Thursday, retracing nearly all gains from the past week.
BTC led losses as the slide led to a drop across major tokens. Ether (ETH) fell 3.8%, while Solana’s (SOL), Cardano’s (ADA), BNB Chain’s (BNB) and Ripple’s XRP{{(XRP}} dropped a smaller 2.5%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20, a liquid fund tracking the largest tokens by capitalization, lost 3.5%.
Much of the drop came after the latest July U.S. consumer price index (CPI) figures were released late on Wednesday. July’s CPI increased by 2.9% year-on-year, as expected, marking the first time since 2021 that it has fallen below 3%.
Despite the NASDAQ and S&P 500 reversing an early sell-off and ending the day in the green, BTC continued its sell-off after the CPI print. Crypto prices have been “highly sensitive” to U.S. economic data in recent months, as per K33 Research, and tend to move as investors prefer stability over riskier assets.
As such, some traders expect BTC prices to drop to as low as $55,000 in the near term, before a leg up, which could spell further losses for major tokens.
“A new sell-off momentum is still the prevailing scenario, with a potential pullback to $55K,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior market analyst, shared in a Thursday note. “Data supporting the Fed’s imminent easing of monetary policy may encourage the bulls to overcome the short-term downtrend and give the green light to rise to $66K.”
Elsewhere, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $81 million in net outflows on Wednesday, ending a two-day positive streak. Grayscale’s GBTC registered $56 million in outflows, the most among counterparts, with Fidelity’s FBTC recording $18 million in outflows. Ark Invest’s ARKB and Bitwise’s BITB lost $6.7 million and $5.7 million respectively.
Franklin Templeton’s EZBC and BlackRock’s IBIT were the only products with net inflows of a cumulative $6 million.
Ether ETFs fared better with $10 million in net inflows, extending a streak to three days. BlackRock’s ETHA recorded $16 million in inflows, while Grayscale’s ETHE lost $16 million. Grayscale’s mini Ether trust ETH, Fidelity’s FETH and Bitwise’s ETHW took on a cumulative $11 million inflows.
