The leading digital coin fell to a more than four-month low in early Asian trade on Monday as apprehension surged over the launch of an avalanche in supply following token allocations from the failed crypto exchange Mt Gox. Bitcoin had staged a recovery over the weekend after tumbling below the vital $55,000 level on Friday but slipped a further 5.8% over the past 24 hours to trade at $54,601.7, approaching the weakest since late February. The ongoing return by Mt Gox trustees of what they consider tokens – stolen in a 2014 hack – to creditors is making cryptocurrency investors wary of a flood in supply.
Meanwhile, this latest surge in Bitcoin’s price has added to wider market volatility, triggering a sell-off not just in Bitcoin but also in other cryptocurrencies; Ether dipped by 7.3 per cent to a two-month low. Fears that the Mt Gox token recovery winners, who have undoubtedly benefited from the huge price increase in Bitcoin over the past decade, would try to ‘cash in’ by selling their holdings on the open market, by reducing its scarcity and thus increasing supply, were enough to stoke speculative selling, and even bring some of the ‘whales’ – the largest Bitcoin wallets – into action.
Source: Investing.com
