Bitcoin has regained its footing: The slide down to the $30,000 mark was followed by a sharp recovery – Bitcoin remains on the search for a bottom.
The sharp price correction that began on Sunday afternoon has left a trail of devastation. In the process, margin traders in particular felt the full force of the crypto market’s volatility. On January 10 alone, long positions worth a total of $2.5 billion were liquidated.
Long and short liquidations on various crypto trading venues.
The sell-off extended into Monday evening. At the $30,000 mark, the party was over for bitcoin bears: A sharp reversal followed, which pushed the price of the cryptocurrency back well into the green. Now it seems as if the short sellers have to dress warmly. That’s because the bitcoin price has been able to recover significantly. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Millionaire scam is trading at $35,568 – more than five percent above the previous day’s level.
According to data from Bybt.com, in the last 4 hours (as of 8:30 a.m.), those who had bet against a recovery in the Bitcoin price in particular had to say goodbye to their margin. On the crypto exchange Binance alone, short positions amounting to over 25 million US dollars were liquidated during this period.
The correction was preceded by a sharp drop in deposits into crypto funds from providers such as Grayscale and Coinshares in the first week of January. Fund manager Coinshares stated in its weekly review on Jan. 11:
Deposits last week totaled $29 million, a significant drop from the week before Christmas, which saw record inflows of $1.09 billion. In addition, given recent record price levels, we observed signs of potential profit-taking, with some investment products seeing outflows.
Given the parabolic rally in Bitcoin and numerous altcoins, it comes as little surprise that some observers feared a similar scenario to that seen in December 2017. After euphoric investors had boosted the Bitcoin price to previously unimagined heights at the time, a crypto winter followed that lasted almost two years and caused investor sentiment to cool down significantly.
Bitcoin bull run: no comparison with 2017
There are many indications that the current bull run is taking place under completely different circumstances than its 2017 counterpart. Above all, the interest of institutional investors has grown significantly compared to 2017. The enormous influx of money into regulated crypto funds is one of many indications that Bitcoin has now become a recognized – albeit extremely volatile – investment.
The CoinShares report goes on to say:
We have seen much greater investor participation this time around, with net new money inflows of $8.2 billion compared to just $534 million in December 2017
Peter Schiff doubts institutional interest
Admittedly, there are still the professional pessimists who can’t – or won’t – warm to digital gold. At the forefront, Peter Schiff, financial market commentator and CEO of brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital, is making noises. Schiff has made his living trading precious metals, among other things, and in his spare time persistently taunts Bitcoin and the crypto community.
Most recently, Schiff has raised doubts about whether institutional investors‘ turn to Bitcoin is really as pronounced as many have rumored.
Very few institutional investors are buying #Bitcoin. It’s just that the few who are buying are extremely vocal about their positions. They have to convince others to buy to push the price up so they can sell. The financial media also gives them a platform to talk about their books.
Peter Schiff via Twitter
Meanwhile, the crypto community’s response was not long in coming. Zuckerberg’s foe and CEO of bitcoin exchange Gemini, Tyler Winklevoss, for example, countered Schiff’s argument with his experience as an exchange CEO. The „Instis“ definitely stocked up on Bitcoin after that – quietly.
This is completely false. There is huge institutional demand and most of it is silent. As the operator and owner of @Gemini, I know this, you do not.