Peter Schiff, a critic of Bitcoin, has shot down claims that institutions are becoming more interested in the cryptocurrency after the recent market drop. Schiff’s comments came after the price of Bitcoin dropped by 10% on Friday.
Lookonchain, a blockchain analytics tool, said that since June 19, the German and US governments, as well as the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, have sent a total of 17,788 BTC worth $1.08 billion to exchanges. Since the beginning of July, the German government has been selling some of its BTC stocks every day.
Bitcoin Price Drops Sharply
On Thursday, 3,000 BTC , which is about $175 million, were transferred. The constant selling by the government and Mt. Gox’s payments to creditors have put a lot of pressure on people to sell Bitcoin. Its price dropped from $60,097 on Thursday to as low as $53,971 on Friday.
Schiff said on the social media site X that Bitcoin’s price drop shows that the desire for the cryptocurrency by institutions is higher than it really is. He said that even though the market sell-off played a part in BTC fall, it is clear that there isn’t a lot of institutional demand, which should have taken advantage of the large amount of BTC that was sold.
Schiff’s views go against the common belief that institutional demand for BTC has been rising, especially since January, when Spot Bitcoin ETFs were introduced. In the first three months of 2024, BTC prices went up and hit a new all-time high of $73,750. This happened at the same time that the Spot Bitcoin ETF market was growing quickly and trading passed $10 billion in March.
In similar news, crypto analyst Rekt Capital said that after the recent drop, Bitcoin may be getting ready for a market recovery. Rekt Capital wrote on X that BTC ended the day trading above $56,750, staying in the low $60,600 band. The expert said that if Bitcoin’s price stays around this level, it might go back up to as much as $71,000.
The price of BTC has gone up 2.45% in the last day, reaching $58,189 as of the most recent report. Its daily trade volume, on the other hand, is still down by 63.35%, or $20.61 billion.
