Yahoo Finance Bitcoin price slides amid Grayscale ETF sell-off
Bitcoin fell 4% over the past 24 hours, dipping below $65,000 (£51,919) after outflows from Grayscale's exchange-traded fund GBTC hit $130m on Wednesday, and BlackRock paused a 71-day inflow streak into its fund.
Read more: Crypto live prices
According to Coingecko data, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is currently changing hands for $64,288.
Wednesday saw Grayscale's GBTC experiencing outflows of $130.4m, while inflows into other ETFs decelerated, dampening the momentum of the bitcoin bull run.
Read more: What is a spot bitcoin ETF and why it has sparked a crypto rally?
Also, BlackRock's (BLK) iShares Bitcoin Trust IBIT fund failed to attract any investor funds for the first time since it started on 11 January, ending a 71 consecutive day streak of inflows. Following IBIT's example, seven out of the other 10 spot bitcoin ETFs also reported zero daily inflows.
According to the data from Farside Investors, the only ETFs that recorded inflows on Wednesday were Fidelity’s FBTC and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), with inflows of $5.6m and $4.2m, respectively.
Wider crypto downturn
Bitcoin is not the only digital asset that has fallen in the past day. Of the crypto majors, Solana (SOL-USD) posted 7% fall in the past 24 hours to $146, according to Coingecko data.
The decline in SOL's price coincides with reports that the bankruptcy estate of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange intends to auction off an unspecified amount of the token this week.
According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the sale, a "blind auction" will be conducted to sell the next batch of the former exchange's Solana assets. In a recent monthly operating report, FTX disclosed it sold approximately $307.6m worth of SOL and ZBC tokens in March, however, April sales results have not been released yet.
The global cryptocurrency market cap today stands at $2.48tn, a decrease of 4.5% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin dominance is at 50.8% and ether (ETH-USD)'s 15.4%. according to Coingecko data.
Read more: Bitcoin ETFs poised for US pension plan inflows, Standard Chartered analyst says
The downturn in the cryptocurrency market comes after the bitcoin halving event that occurred last weekend. Analysts anticipate that the supply crunch, resulting from the reduced bitcoin issuance after the event, will lead to a price appreciation for the digital asset in the coming months.
Bitcoin halving may have been 'priced in'
However, one analyst stressed that the bitcoin halving isn't a "magical event" for investors, and that the event was already priced in.
"The halving shouldn't change anything there. It's literally written in the code... it's just going to continue. It's not this special thing or magical event that makes bitcoin any more or less compelling to invest," 401 Financial Principal & Founder Tyrone Ross told Yahoo Finance Wealth.
He added that "for all intents and purposes, for something that is written into the bitcoin code, the halving was priced in."
Watch: What is bitcoin halving and how will it impact its price? | Future Focus
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