Oil prices rose on worries about renewed disruptions to Middle East supply and the possibility of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Brent crude closed at its highest since April 29.
- Bitcoin slid back toward $80,000 on Saturday, more than a month after it last broke that level.
- U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost over $635 million on Thursday, and $137.94 million on Friday, according to SoSoValue data.
- Galaxy’s Alex Thorn said he is “very confident” the industry will swing back toward decentralized crypto.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped to around $80,000 on Saturday, a level it last traded at in September, as U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds lost over $635 million on Thursday.
The slide came as investors turned sellers on US spot Bitcoin ETFs, with the funds seeing over $635 million in net outflows on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. This nearly matched the $681 million the funds lost over the entire week ending October 9.
SoSoValue data also showed it was nearly three times last week’s $229 million in outflows.
Bitcoin’s price traded around $80,500, down over 1% over 24 hours, at the time of writing. The drop took the price back to a level it last broke last month, when it traded around the $80,000 range on 18th September.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.
Oil Adds To The Pressure
Bitcoin’s slide also came as oil prices climbed higher. Brent crude rose over 3% on Friday to settle at $116.72 a barrel, its highest settlement since April, as high oil prices stoked inflation fears on Wall Street.
Reports that the U.S. and Israel could be preparing fresh strikes on Iran had revived geopolitical worries. Market participants still priced in a 90% chance that the Federal Reserve would hold rates steady of 375-400 basis points at its meeting next week, according to the CME FedWatch tool, while 10% priced a rate hike of 400 to 425 basis points for the upcoming Oct 27 to 28 Federal Reserve meeting.
Meanwhile, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said that oil does not move Bitcoin directly.
According to him, the bigger headwind was the tougher economy that expensive oil created. He noted that Bitcoin’s momentum had historically cooled when Brent trended strongly above its yearly average.
Thorn Sees ‘Pendulum’ Swinging Back
Speaking on Galaxy’s “Galaxy Brains” podcast, Thorn took a longer view. He described crypto as moving between “the suits,” the banks and brokerages that embraced blockchain technology but kept Bitcoin at arm’s length, and “the cypherpunks,” who backed decentralized money.
He explained that the suits had the upper hand right now, but that has also happened before. Around 2015 and 2016, banks championed “blockchain not Bitcoin” and built private networks, but “ultimately none of those really worked.” Thorn said the industry had since swung back. “I’ve seen it happen, you know, four or five times now, this pendulum swing,” he said. “And I’m very confident it will happen again.”
He urged Bitcoin holders to “not despair,” adding that “Bitcoin is here to stay.” While “we can’t know for certain,” Thorn said it looked “pretty certain” that the $58,000 range Bitcoin touched in June marked the bottom of this cycle.
October has historically been Bitcoin’s best month. However, Thorn noted that “we haven’t had uh back-to-back uh red Octobers since 2011 and 2012.”
Bitcoin, the apex cryptocurrency, was down over 8% year-to-date (YTD).
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