BITCOIN BOUNCES UP AND DOWN Meanwhile, bitcoin remains in a state of limbo. On the one hand, it rebounded after crashing below $50,000 last weekend. On the other, it is looking for a new path upwards, which could be difficult in the short term as institutions look to cement some profits. Epitomizing this trend is Tesla, which made waves earlier this year after it was revealed to have $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, selling 10% of its holdings for a $100 million profit . Perhaps understanding the negative reception to this sale, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to suggest that the company only sold to prove the asset’s liquidity and that he is not selling any of his personal holdings (which remain a mystery). Additionally, the falling volume of CME bitcoin futures, a relatively obscure indicator on the world’s largest regulated crypto derivatives exchange, suggests that institutional interest in bitcoin is withering away, at least for now. Looking further out, bitcoin’s dominance, a measure of its share of cryptocurrency market capitalization, has dropped more than 16% to 50.5% since the beginning of April. This is the lowest it has been since 2018 and suggests that investors are starting to look more closely at ether and other altcoins to stretch out their gains. |