Cryptocurrencies have concluded their worst week since February of this year as the price of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: $BTC) fell 17% over the last five days to hit is lowest level in two years.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH) have been pummeled at the start of June as the narrative around digital assets turns sour. In afternoon trading on June 5, Bitcoin’s price was down 6% to $59,550 U.S., its lowest level since October 2024.
Analysts are beginning to sound the alarm as they see an absence of near-term catalysts that can help reverse the current slide in cryptocurrencies. Over the past week, Bitcoin’s so called “fear gauge” rose more than 20% as retail investors grow increasingly nervous about the selloff.
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Institutional investors are also pulling capital from crypto, with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the spot price of BTC registering 13 consecutive days of outflows, which resulted in a $25 billion U.S. capital exodus.
Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket see more losses ahead. The current betting on both platforms is that Bitcoin’s price will fall as low as $50,000 U.S. during the current downturn.
Here’s what else happened with cryptocurrencies this week:
Strategy Sells Bitcoin: Strategy (NASDAQ: $MSTR) sold some of its Bitcoin holdings for the first time in four years. A regulatory disclosure showed that Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin for proceeds of $2.5 million U.S. The amount is small considering that Strategy owns more than 840,000 Bitcoin but is still significant as it suggests potentially larger sales in coming months. Strategy is under pressure to fund dividend payments on its preferred stock (NASDAQ: $STRC), which yields 11.5%.
Hut 8 Bond Sale Raises $17 Billion: A bond sale undertaken by Hut 8 (NASDAQ: $HUT) has attracted $17 billion U.S. in investor orders. The Canadian Bitcoin miner turned data centre operator raised four times the $4.25 billion U.S. it had targeted with the bond sale. Management at Hut 8 said the proceeds will support the development of a 352-megawatt data centre in Texas. The facility has been leased to chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: $NVDA).
U.S. Banks Launch Tokenization Network: Top U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: $JPM), Bank of America (NYSE: $BAC), and Citigroup (NYSE: $C) are joining forces on a new tokenization network. The banks plan to build a shared tokenized deposit network to protect their deposits from the threat posed from stablecoins. The system will be operated by The Clearing House, the payments company collectively owned by the banks. Internally, the banks are calling the new tokenized network “the bridge.”