Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Bitcoin and Ether recorded losses over the weekend and are both down by more than 2%.
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The Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs are set to start trading tomorrow, April 30th.
BTC Dips Below $63k
Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, has had a poor month so far. Its poor performance comes despite Bitcoin halving earlier this month and the upcoming spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) launch in Hong Kong in a few hours.
BTC lost more than 2% of its value over the weekend and is now trading below $63k. At press time, the price of Bitcoin stands at $62,453, down by more than 5% over the last seven days.
If the bears remain in control, BTC could test the $60k psychological level in the coming hours. Spot Bitcoin ETFs are set to start trading in Hong Kong tomorrow, April 30th. This comes roughly three months after the U.S. launched its first ETFs to track spot bitcoin. The ETFs in the United States have already drawn roughly $12 billion in net inflows and contributed to a surge in BTC’s price earlier this year.
However, the ETF launch in Hong Kong hasn’t been enough to stop BTC from underperforming. Analysts believe the sluggish US economy is the primary reason behind the underperformance of Bitcoin and other risk-based assets. QCP wrote that,
"The weaker than expected [U.S.] GDP print points to a more sluggish economy while the higher Core PCE warns of an inflation problem that continues to be a thorn in the Fed's side."
Most analysts still don’t think the Fed will cut interest rates this year, reducing the likelihood of Bitcoin experiencing a massive surge in the coming months.
Altcoins followed Bitcoin in recording losses over the weekend. Ether has lost more than 3% of its value over the weekend and is now trading below $3,200 per coin. Meanwhile, the total crypto market cap has dropped by 2.3% and now stands at $2.32 trillion.
