Market News

BY Sidhartha Shukla, Bloomberg News

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin is grinding lower as part of a $500 billion slide in digital assets, stoking questions about whether the crypto rebound has peaked.

The token is flirting with five straight days of declines, which would be the longest such losing run since October last year. The overall crypto market has tumbled 17% to $2.4 trillion in the wake of Bitcoin’s mid-March record high of $73,798, according to data compiled by CoinGecko and Bloomberg News.

Fizzling inflows into US spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the prospect of higher-for-longer Federal Reserve interest rates are together subduing digital assets. Last week’s debut of Hong Kong crypto ETFs failed to brighten the mood.

Cash flooding into the US funds after their January launch had earlier lifted Bitcoin to its all-time peak. Overall net inflows for the group now stand at $11.8 billion following a $169 million outflow so far this month.

Many speculators who were betting on continuing strong ETF flows are now “being washed out of the market,” said Benjamin Celermajer, director at digital-asset investment manager Magnet Capital. But he added that the bull market isn’t over and that Bitcoin will scale new highs by the end of 2024.

In the derivatives market, there are signs investors expect fewer big Bitcoin swings compared with the volatility that shadowed the rollout of the US ETFs.

The T3 Bitcoin Volatility Index — which uses options prices to give a sense of expected 30-day swings in the token — and the equivalent gauge for second-ranked digital asset Ether are both at around two-month lows.

Bitcoin fell about 1.4% to $60,730 as of 7:05 a.m. in New York on Thursday, while Ether was little changed at around $3,000.