- ETF outflows and government movement of crypto assets push price of BTC down: As we have seen in recent weeks, the price of BTC declined alongside increasing ETF outflows, as Cathie Wood’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin (BTC) ETF experienced its first outflows, dropping from above $70K to a low of $64.5K on Tuesday. Further headwinds included the movement of 30,175 BTC by the U.S. government, sparking concerns over whether the assets would be sold or held in custody.
- Equity and crypto markets impacted negatively by May rate cut doubts: U.S. equities and crypto markets dropped this week as the market ruled out a rate cut coming in May, with the expectation that the June meeting will deliver the first rate cut of the year rising to 62.3%. US manufacturing expanded in March, and the personal consumer expenditures price index accelerated in February from the previous month, suggesting the economy is continuing to grow while progress on inflation has stalled.
- Altcoins and memecoins decline in response to BTC drop: Altcoins saw a heavy pullback in the wake of BTC shifting downward. AI-related tokens in particular saw some of the largest declines, while memecoins also experienced a slight correction following their strong run up in the past couple of weeks.
- SBF sentenced to 25 years on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy: Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last week for seven different fraud and conspiracy charges. The FTX exchange was once valued at
32B
at the height of the previous bull market before collapsing as it was discovered that over
8B
of customer funds had been stolen.
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