As investors' concerns about inflation and high interest rates return to the market, coupled with the disappointing performance of the Hong Kong cryptocurrency spot ETF on its first day of listing, the currency market has set off selling pressure again, starting yesterday (30th) from US$63,000 all the way The price fluctuated and fell. In early trading in Asia today (1st), it saw a stalemate at the US$60,000 mark. The voice of "the bear market has arrived" was rampant.

According to OKX market quotations, Bitcoin has fallen by more than 5.6% in the past 24 hours. As of writing, it is still fluctuating around the US$60,000 mark. It has fallen by more than 18% from the historical high of US$73,787 in March this year, and has hit a low of US$59,137 today. Ethereum fell below the US$3,000 mark, reaching US$2,991 at the time of writing, a drop of 6.1% in the past 24 hours.

As the overall cryptocurrency market weakened, a large number of liquidations also broke out in leveraged positions. The cryptocurrency futures contract market exploded with $357 million in positions in the past 24 hours, of which $315 million came from long positions.

LMAX Group market strategist Joel Kruger pointed out that recent reports showed stronger U.S. economic data and increased inflation, which significantly reduced expectations for an interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), causing the cryptocurrency market to face heavy selling pressure. He said:

Although investors are calling for looser policies, there are signs that the Fed still needs to maintain high interest rates for a longer period of time. With the U.S. dollar regaining favor across the board, we’re also seeing this impact cryptoassets.

Looking at the entire month, Bitcoin fell by more than 16% in April. Not only did its seven-month rise come to an abrupt halt, it also recorded the largest single-month decline since the FTX crash in November 2022; TradingView data shows that overall The market value of cryptocurrencies fell by nearly 18% in April, the largest decline since June 2022.

The downtrend may not be over yet

John Glover, chief investment officer of cryptocurrency lending company Ledn, believes that this wave of selling will continue until Bitcoin pulls back to the mid-to-low area of ​​around $50,000, saying: "This should be a buying opportunity."

K33 Research pointed out that the seasonal impact of lower interest rates in the summer months also shows that Bitcoin prices will fall into a low gear. K33 analyst Vetle Lunde said:

Over the past five years, if a trader bought Bitcoin at the opening in May and then sold at the closing in September, the estimated cumulative return was -29%; but if a trader bought at the opening in October and then sold at the closing in April of the following year Sell, and he would earn a whopping 1,449% return.

Hong Kong cryptocurrency spot ETF debuts

Hong Kong's six cryptocurrency spot ETFs were officially listed for trading yesterday (30th). The trading volume on the first day of listing reached HK$87.6149 million (approximately US$11 million). Many investors felt that the performance of the US Bitcoin spot ETF when it was first listed was not amazing enough. .

However, Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, pointed out that considering the huge gap in the size of the ETF markets between Hong Kong and the United States, even if the first impression is not outstanding, the debut of Hong Kong ETFs is actually more successful than expected. .

"If you localize the numbers, it's a big number," he said.

Eric Balchunas cited Bloomberg data and pointed out that the China Bitcoin ETF alone attracted more than $123 million in assets on its first trading day and has ranked among the top 20% of ETFs in terms of size.

He also added that the listing of the Hong Kong Bitcoin spot ETF comes at the right time and will help offset recent outflows from U.S. ETFs.

〈Selling pressure sweeps across the currency market! Bitcoin is trapped in the "60,000 mark defense battle", ending 7 months of consecutive rises> This article was first published on "Block Guest".