Bitcoin’s price dropped further on Monday, continuing a weekend sell-off as the cryptocurrency market remains under pressure after a month-long downturn. The slight recovery seen at the end of last week, fueled by optimism that U.S. recession fears were exaggerated, lost momentum over the weekend, leading to renewed selling across the crypto sector.
As of 01:52 ET (05:52 GMT), Bitcoin had fallen 4.3% to $58,520.7, with trading volumes subdued due to a Japanese market holiday. The cryptocurrency has been fluctuating between $50,000 and $60,000 over the past week after dipping to a low of $49,000.
Investor sentiment towards riskier assets remains cautious, particularly ahead of Wednesday’s critical U.S. inflation data, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s decisions on interest rate cuts. While stock markets have shown signs of recovery, with Asian markets gaining on Monday, the crypto market has lagged due to its speculative nature. A stronger U.S. dollar also added pressure, as traders positioned themselves ahead of the inflation report. Expectations are that inflation cooled in July, potentially encouraging the Fed to consider rate cuts.
In broader crypto markets, the downturn extended beyond Bitcoin. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 4.3% to $2,549.22. XRP also dropped 4.7% to $0.5625, retreating from a rally last week following a court ruling that Ripple Labs, the issuer of XRP, was liable for a fraction of the penalties sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the illegal sale of securities. However, the ruling did not clarify whether crypto tokens are considered securities.
Other altcoins also suffered, with ADA and SOL declining by 5.8% and 8.3%, respectively. Popular memecoins SHIB and DOGE each lost over 6%.
