Bitcoin prices have sunk again as the defunct Mt. Gox exchange begins moving assets, potentially sparking another sell-off.
The bankrupt Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange transferred 13,265 BTC worth around $784 million on Aug. 21, according to Arkham Intelligence.
12,000 BTC were then directed to a new address, while the remaining 1,265 went into a cold wallet associated with Mt. Gox. It is the first major movement of BTC by the exchange trustee in three weeks.
Bitcoin Price Slides
The Mt. Gox address still holds 46,164K BTC worth around $2.74 billion, according to Arkham. In July, the failed exchange started paying back its creditors as part of its rehabilitation plan. It moved a whopping 44,527 BTC worth around $2.84 billion at the time. This triggered a dump of 3% as bitcoin lost $2,000 in a matter of hours.
The exchange, one of the world’s first BTC marketplaces, became insolvent after a devastating hack that led to the theft of 850,000 BTC valued at around $460 million at the time of the incident in 2014.
The latest movement already appears to have caused some panic selling, with bitcoin dropping 3% over the past 12 hours and falling below $60,000 again. At the time of writing, the asset was trading at $59,500, according to CoinGecko.
However, analysts have observed that markets have remained resilient to this onslaught of selling pressure.
With Mt. Gox returning 140,000 BTC, the German government selling 50,000 BTC, the US government offloading another 10,000, and a miner sell-off is all pretty much over, pointed out “PlanB.”
He added that there will be a large $12.7 billion cash distribution from FTX in the fourth quarter, which “might be the spark that ignites the pump.”
How Are Altcoins Holding Up?
Crypto markets have lost 2.3% over the past 24 hours, which means that altcoins are suffering more than their big brother. Total market capitalization currently stands at $2.19 trillion.
Ethereum dropped a similar percentage, falling from an intraday high of $2,700, where there is heavy resistance to around $2,590 at the time of writing.
The altcoins are all in the red again, aside from Tron (TRX) which got an 11% boost from a court victory against the SEC this week, and Avalanche (AVAX), up 4.5%.