Investing.com — Bitcoin prices fell slightly on Friday as the recent rally in cryptocurrency markets lost steam, with attention shifting to distributions from the defunct Mt Gox exchange and more signals on the U.S. regulatory outlook.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has seen a strong rally this week on bets that a Donald Trump presidency will bring a better regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies, given that Trump has touted more crypto-friendly regulation as part of his re-election campaign.
This helped offset concerns about selling pressure from token distributions by Mt Gox, which began moving billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to return to creditors after a hack in 2014.
At 02:03 ET (06:03 GMT), shares were down 0.9% at $64,166.3. They were up 8.5% last week.
Cryptocurrency markets also came under pressure from
Bitcoin heads for a strong week amid Trump speculation
The world's largest cryptocurrency rebounded from four-month lows this week after Trump appeared to have gotten a massive boost in popularity following a failed assassination attempt last week.
He was formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate this week.
The former president has maintained a largely pro-cryptocurrency stance during his recent campaign efforts, stating that the future of cryptocurrencies must be built in the US. His campaign also accepts cryptocurrency donations.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville later this month, where speculation on social media suggested the presidential front-runner might outline plans to declare Bitcoin a “strategic reserve asset.” But there seemed to be no credible grounds for this speculation.
Mt Gox fears limit Bitcoin gains
But concerns about Mt Gox distributions remained, especially as wallets linked to the exchange were seen moving nearly $3 billion worth of tokens earlier this week.
Fears of distributions, which are expected to significantly increase Bitcoin supplies, had led to sharp losses in Bitcoin in early July, although the token has since recovered.
However, it is unclear how large the Mt Gox distribution will be. Traders also speculated that given Bitcoin’s massive gains over the past decade, recipients of the token will be more inclined to sell, a scenario that presents strong selling pressure on the token.
Cryptocurrency prices today: Altcoins fall, but speculation on ETFs persists
Among broader cryptocurrency markets, major altcoins also retreated as a recent rally cooled, though losses were limited by speculation about more U.S. spot exchange-traded fund launches.
fell 0.2% to $3,444.58 as recent reports said the Securities and Exchange Commission could approve a spot Ether ETF as early as next week.
rose 3.8% after recent reports also showed that a spot SOL ETF was in the works.
and fell 2.3% and 4.7% respectively, while among meme tokens, they fell 1.1% and slid 6.2%.
