Investing.com– The price of bitcoin fell on Tuesday, extending recent declines, as a combination of regulatory fears, particularly over U.S. measures and German government sales, along with broader risk aversion, kept cryptocurrency prices under pressure.
It fell 2.4% in the last 24 hours to $61,332.0 at 01:22 CET (05:22 GMT). It had fallen as low as $59,215 in overnight trading.
The sell-off in cryptocurrencies was driven by a storm of different regulatory factors that, along with angst over US interest rates, drove prices down overall. It was also observed that crypto investment products recorded two consecutive weeks of strong capital outflows.
Bitcoin price pressured by German sell-off fears and inflation distress
Bitcoin suffered heavy losses over the past week amid reports that the German government was selling Bitcoin confiscated from a piracy website. Reports said that German police had sold around 3,000 tokens of the 50,000 initially confiscated.
The reports of the German selling were accompanied by other reports that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission was investigating market maker Jump Trading for its cryptocurrency trading activities. Jump president Kanav Kariya also said he would leave the company.
The reports added to a broader risk-off sentiment in cryptocurrency markets as traders turned to the dollar ahead of key US inflation data due this Friday. The data, which is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, is expected to offer more clues on interest rates this week.
Rising fears of high rates had hit cryptocurrency markets over the past week and showed few signs of dissipating. The strength in the appeal of cryptocurrencies also decreased.
Crypto investment products experience sustained outflows
Data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday that crypto investment products saw outflows totaling around $584 million, with the bulk of them going into US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Bitcoin products saw outflows of $630 million, while altcoin products saw mild inflows as investors viewed recent price declines as a buying opportunity.
Cryptocurrency price today: altcoins rise but maintain losses
Cryptocurrency prices overall rose on Tuesday, with major altcoins recovering from heavy losses seen over the past week.
The world's No. 2 token rose 0.2% to $3,377.80, after giving up most of its gains from hype over a spot Ether ETF.
and rose between 0.3% and 10%, leading gains among its peers, albeit on reduced trading volumes.
Among the meme tokens, they added around 2% each.
