On the morning of August 3rd, Beijing time, the price of Bitcoin suffered a shocking flash crash, once falling below $61,000. Ethereum, Binance Coin, Dogecoin and other currencies also followed suit.
As of press time, the price of Bitcoin continues to fall, temporarily trading at $60,862 per coin.
On the morning of August 3rd, Beijing time, the virtual currency market fluctuated violently. Bitcoin suffered a large-scale sell-off, and the price fell rapidly, falling below three integer marks of US$63,000, US$62,000, and US$61,000, reaching the lowest level of US$60,517 per coin.
Other currencies in the virtual currency market have plummeted. Ethereum fell by 6.84% in 24 hours, Binance Coin fell by more than 5% in 24 hours, and Dogecoin fell by 6.8% in 24 hours. CoinGecko data shows that the total market value of cryptocurrency fell below 2.2 trillion US dollars, a 24-hour drop of nearly 4%, and more than 88 billion US dollars (approximately RMB 630.1 billion) in market value evaporated.
According to Coinglass data, in the past 24 hours, nearly 100,000 people liquidated their positions in the virtual currency market, with a total liquidation amount of US$330 million (approximately RMB 2.36 billion), of which US$286 million was liquidated for long orders and US$4,379 for short orders. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.
Since July this year, the price of Bitcoin has continued to fluctuate in the range of 55,000 to 70,000 US dollars. During this period, Bitcoin once rose to 69,799 US dollars, but quickly fell back. Multiple institutions expect Bitcoin prices to continue to fluctuate in this range in the coming months in the absence of strong catalysts.
Zhao Wei, a senior researcher at the OKX Research Institute, told a reporter from the China Securities Journal that according to OKX market data, Bitcoin has fallen for four consecutive days, and the current Bitcoin price is still in a downward channel. Recent changes in the global economic environment and fluctuations in the US dollar exchange rate have had a significant impact on the market, and speculation has also led to sharp fluctuations in currency prices. The virtual currency market will be affected by many aspects such as supply and demand, policies and regulations, global economic cycles, traditional financial markets, etc. Its price trends also show high volatility and sensitivity. Follow-up market trends still require close attention to macroeconomic factors such as U.S. interest rate cuts.
Industry insiders pointed out that today’s sell-off caused the price of Bitcoin to fall back below the 50-day and 200-day moving averages (EMA). Key market indicators such as exchange inflows, momentum and the market cap to realized market cap ratio (MVRV) for short-term holders are showing signs of slowing market momentum and increasing selling pressure.
A research report from the virtual currency trading platform Coinbase pointed out that historically, the virtual currency market has shown a continuous downward trend in August, with phenomena such as reduced market activity, insufficient liquidity and a sharp decline in the value of major virtual currencies. Bitcoin price is expected to fluctuate between $61,000 and $70,000 in August.
Grzegorz Drozdz, a market analyst at payment platform Conotoxia, said: “The virtual currency market has been in a downturn in recent months. Previously, there was a surge in capital flowing into the market, which can be measured by the capitalization of stablecoins, but the capitalization of stablecoins has It’s been frozen for the past two months.”
The decline in the virtual currency market is mainly due to the continued selling of "miners" whose income has plummeted. Since the Bitcoin “mining” reward was halved, many Bitcoin “miners” have fallen into financial crisis.
On April 20, Beijing time, Bitcoin completed its fourth halving in history. The mining reward of the Bitcoin network was halved from 6.25 Bitcoins to 3.125 Bitcoins. The halving event has had a greater impact on the income of Bitcoin “miners”. There are two main sources of income for Bitcoin “miners”: mining rewards and transaction fees. The halving event directly affects the mining rewards of "miners". However, the operating costs of "miners", such as electricity bills, equipment fees, etc., will not be reduced.
Research firm Kaiko said that as the income of Bitcoin "miners" who hold large amounts of virtual currency assets declines sharply, the virtual currency market may face greater selling pressure.
Data from CryptoQuant shows that “miners” are accelerating the sale of their Bitcoin reserves in recent days. Daily Bitcoin outflows from miner wallets have reached their highest levels since May, indicating massive miner selling.
Since mid-July, the stock prices of many Bitcoin miners such as Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms have entered a downward channel. On August 1, local time, the second fiscal quarter performance report released by Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital showed that second quarter revenue was US$145 million, which did not meet Wall Street expectations of US$158 million; it had a net loss of US$199 million. Marathon Digital said in its financial report that some operational challenges hindered its ability to mine Bitcoin, and that the Bitcoin "halving" effect put pressure on "mining", causing sales to take a hit in the second fiscal quarter.
On July 31, local time, Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms released its second fiscal quarter performance report. The report showed that total revenue in the second fiscal quarter was US$70.02 million and net loss was US$84.45 million. Bitcoin “mining” production dropped from 1,775 in the second fiscal quarter of 2023 to 844, a year-on-year decrease of 52%.
