Key Points
- Bitcoin and Ether prices have experienced a significant drop, with Bitcoin hitting a two-week low.
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs logged record outflows, with $326.2 million exiting on Tuesday.
The value of Bitcoin has hit a two-week low, dropping 5.18% in the past 24 hours to trade at $61,380.
Similarly, Ether has also seen a decrease, falling 7.8% to $3,090.
Market Trends
This decrease in the value of the two largest cryptocurrencies mirrors the value they held in the last week of February. Other top 10 non-stablecoin crypto tokens in terms of market capitalization also declined on Wednesday in Asia.
This drop in price coincides with significant outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). On Tuesday, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $326.2 million in outflows, a record since their introduction. GBTC alone saw $444 million exit the fund.
Shift to Smaller Coins
It has been suggested that speculative shifts to smaller coins like SOL and AVAX, and meme coins, have contributed to Bitcoin’s drop.
Meme coins on the Solana network, such as dogwifhat and Slerf, have seen a surge in popularity, driven by a $700,000 advertisement on the Vegas sphere. This has led to record highs in the network’s on-chain volumes and fees.
Economist Alex Krüger has suggested that the Solana mania may have gone too far, contributing to the decline in Bitcoin’s value. He noted an excess of leverage in the crypto market.
The price of Ether is often tied to Bitcoin’s, and delays in SEC decisions on proposed Ether ETFs by Hashdex and ARK 21Shares have increased uncertainty. Grayscale is also considering adding staking to its Ether ETF application.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization has fallen 4.5% in the past 24 hours to $2.42 trillion.
