Major cryptocurrencies continued to drop on Tuesday evening as institutional sales linked to recently launched exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to exert downward pressure on BTC.
What Happened: Recent selling pressure on Bitcoin has been linked to sales from the FTX bankruptcy estate, which has offloaded around 22 million shares of Grayscale's GBTC in the past few weeks.
On-chain analysis firm CryptoQuant was one of the few to speculate that the ETF approval would culminate in a “sell-the-news” event. The term “sell the news” is a familiar concept in capital markets, illustrating how asset prices, leverage, and sentiment drive prices higher prior to a bullish event, only for prices to decline shortly thereafter.
Since its conversion to a spot Bitcoin ETF on Jan. 11, GBTC has experienced over $3.4 billion in outflows. Grayscale subsequently deposited billions in Bitcoin to crypto exchange Coinbase Prime, likely for sale.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reported an outflow of $515 million on Jan. 23, resulting in a 13% reduction in shares outstanding. However, he noted that the latest data indicates a potential slowdown in the outflow.
The recent outflows have been linked to defunct crypto exchange FTX, which reportedly sold two-thirds of 22.3 million shares in GBTC over three days of trading. FTX is believed to still hold around 8 ...