Investing.com — Bitcoin fell sharply in early Asian trading on Monday, reversing a modest rally seen over the weekend and hitting a more than four-month low on concerns about a flood of token supply from the defunct Mt Gox cryptocurrency exchange.
The cryptocurrency fell 5.8% over the past 24 hours to $54,601.7 as of 21:28 ET (01:28 GMT), approaching its lowest level since late February. The coin also fell below a key support at $55,000.
Bitcoin has suffered heavy losses over the past two weeks amid concerns over token distributions by Mt Gox. The platform's administrators said last week that they had begun distributing tokens stolen during a 2014 hack to creditors through a number of platforms, although they did not specify how many tokens were being returned.
Wallets associated with the exchange were observed moving around $9 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year.
Mt Gox has been a major point of contention for cryptocurrency markets as traders speculated that given the massive rise in the price of Bitcoin over the past decade, recipients of the token would likely sell it on the open market, increasing the token's supply.
Fears of such a scenario playing out prompted widespread dumping of the token, with several Bitcoin “whale” wallets also appearing online and mobilizing their holdings for sales.
Bitcoin's sell-off spread to the broader cryptocurrency market, with the world's No. 2 token falling 7.3% to a two-month low.
