Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Stagnant During Mt. Gox Payouts
Crypto markets remained relatively stable on Friday amid Mt. Gox’s ongoing Bitcoin transfers to meet creditor obligations. Ethereum (ETH) experienced a slight 1% decline to $3,153, while Bitcoin (BTC) maintained a flat trading position at $65,000. Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT) saw a decrease of 3%.
Recently, over $3.1 billion worth of Bitcoin was moved from Mt. Gox to BitGo, the final of five crypto service providers facilitating creditor fund retrievals. Currently, Mt. Gox holds around $2.13 billion, equivalent to 32,990 Bitcoin, as per Arkham Intelligence’s data.
In a recent update on July 31, Mt. Gox informed creditors about the payout process, confirming Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transfers to designated exchanges with repayments scheduled for July 5, 16, 24, and 31.
CoinGlass data revealed that within the last 24 hours, over 88,871 traders faced liquidation, resulting in total liquidations amounting to $254.51 million.
Michael van de Poppe, CEO of MN Trading, emphasized the importance of Bitcoin maintaining levels above $60-61K to progress towards its all-time high. He expressed optimism for a potential new all-time high in September/October despite historical trends of August and September being challenging.
Eliézer Ndinga, Head of Strategy and Business Development for Digital Assets at 21Shares, suggested that escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East might be contributing to the market selloff. Ndinga noted a temporary flight to safety due to geopolitical uncertainties, highlighting strong U.S. Bitcoin ETF inflows despite market fluctuations.
MicroStrategy, a business intelligence firm, expanded its Bitcoin holdings in the second quarter of 2024 by acquiring 12,222 BTC for $805 million, increasing its total BTC holdings to 226,500, valued at approximately $14.7 billion. During its Q2 earnings call, MicroStrategy reported losses of $5.74 per share on revenue of $111.4 million, marking a 7% decline from the previous year.
Coinbase surpassed second-quarter revenue expectations, reporting $1.45 billion in total revenue, slightly above the estimated $1.4 billion by Wall Street analysts. Transaction fees decreased by 27% from the previous quarter, while subscription and services revenue grew by 17%.
Block, formerly known as Square, reported a gross profit of $2.23 billion, a 20% increase from the previous year, with a net income of $195.3 million.
In the stock market, U.S. stock futures declined after the release of a crucial July payroll report. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 1%, S&P 500 futures by 0.5%, and Nasdaq 100 futures by 2%. The report revealed that the U.S. economy added only 114,000 jobs in July, below the expected 185,000 jobs growth according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
