Bitcoin Price Falls As Sellers Drive Price Action

Crypto markets took a nosedive Friday morning amid sustained weakness in the spot markets.

In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) suffered a 1.9% drop to $58,000, Ethereum (ETH) sank 2.3% to $2,579, Polkadot (DOT) fell 4% to $4.25, and Solana (SOL) slipped 3% to $139.

Excluding tokens tracking real-world assets, Zcash (ZEC) was the best-performing top 100 cryptocurrencies despite gaining just 1.5%, followed by Thorchain (THOR) with 1%, and Litecoin (LTC) with 0.5%. Memecoins posted the steepest drops, with Dogwifhat (WIF) continuing its descent with a 13% loss, Pepe (PEPE) shedding 12%, and Bonk (BONK) tumbling 11.4%.

Recent analysis from Glassnode indicates sellers have taken control of the market, with bears stepping in at the end of July when Bitcoin failed to break above $70,000. The trend manifests as a negative adjusted Cumulative Volume Delta (adj-CVD), showing selling pressure outweighs demand from buyers in the spot market.

However, Glassnode also noted that the sum of BTC controlled by long-term holders (LTHs) of Bitcoin remains historically high. “Even though prices have traded sideways, to downwards of late, these investors are increasingly unwilling to part ways with their coins at lower prices,” the report said.

BlackRock ETFs’ BTC and ETH holdings surpass Grayscale

On Aug. 16, Arkham Intelligence, an on-chain analytics platform flagged that the Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings of BlackRock’s spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) overtook those of Grayscale.

The data shows BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and iShares Ethereum Trust ETF holding nearly $21.22 billion worth of assets combined, compared to the $21.2 billion held by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, Grayscale Ethereum Trust, and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust,

Data from Sosovalue shows $11.1 million flowing into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs on Thursday. Spot Ethereum ETFs suffered an outflow of $39.2 million — nearly erasing the three previous days of inflows totaling $40 million.

U.S. stocks struggle while global indexes surge

U.S. stock futures also dipped Friday morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 0.30%, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.45%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.60%.

However, U.S. retail sales data released on Thursday exceeded economists’ expectations while weekly jobless claims fell. Retail sales jumped 1% in July, exceeding Dow Jones’ 0.3% estimate. Jobless claims dropped by 7,000 to 227,000 in the week that ended August 10, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department.

Meanwhile, it was a bullish day for major Asian stock market indexes. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.64%, Taiwan’s Taiex index rallied 2.07%, South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 1.99%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng bounced 1.88%, and the Australian All Ordinaries gained 1.33%.