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On Thursday, the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell below $58,000 for the first time since early May, due to concerns that Mt. Gox will distribute a large amount of BTC to its creditors. The German government also moved its BTC reserve to cryptocurrency exchanges.
He The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell by 5% in intraday trading, before recovering to the $58,000 level. BTC is currently trading at $58,200 as of 1:21 pm ET.
The drop came as wallets on the defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange showed signs of activity for the first time in a month and Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office moved more than $75 million to cryptocurrency exchanges, a CoinDesk report said.
The report also indicated that Mt. Gox wallets, which have been dormant for a month, showed activity with some test transactions, which could potentially be the start of the company’s distribution process to its creditors. It is widely believed that payment will be made in crypto tokens.
Media reports suggested that the payment includes tokens worth approximately $9 billion.
“Among the main reasons for the price drop is the fact that the German government moved more than $50 million to cryptocurrency exchanges, creating speculation of selling in the market,” said Lucy Hu, senior analyst at Metalpha.
Earlier in the day, BTC had also fallen below the 200-day moving average.
Cryptocurrency-linked stocks also fell: Marathon Digital (MARA) -5.2%Coinbase Global (COIN) -1.1%Riot control platforms (RIOT) -1.5%MicroStrategy (MSTR) -1.4%CleanSpark (CLSK) -4.6%.