Bitcoin drops to $59,830.0, extends weekend sell-off

Sentiment towards risk-driven markets remained strained, especially in anticipation of key U.S. inflation data on Wednesday, which is set to offer more hints on the Fed’s plans for interest rate cuts

Bitcoin price dropped on Monday, extending a sell-off seen over the weekend as sentiment towards crypto markets remained dampened following a deep rout over the past month.

Crypto saw some relief towards the end of last week, tracking a rebound in wider financial markets as investors bet that fears of a U.S. recession were overblown.

But this notion ran out of steam over the weekend, with crypto tokens seeing extended selling in the last two days.

Bitcoin dropped 1.3% to $59,830.0 by 13:17 GMT. Trading volumes were also somewhat muted on account of a Japanese market holiday.

The world’s largest crypto currency was rangebound between $50,000 and $60,000 over the past week, after dipping as low as $49,000 earlier.

Sentiment towards risk-driven markets remained strained, especially in anticipation of key U.S. inflation data on Wednesday, which is set to offer more hints on the Federal Reserve’s plans for interest rate cuts.

While stock markets saw some recovery in recent sessions, with Asian shares gaining on Monday, crypto lagged this bounce back, given the market’s more speculative nature.

Some resilience in the dollar also weighed, with the currency seeing inflows as traders positioned for Wednesday’s inflation figure. The figure is expected to show inflation cooled further in July, giving the Fed more confidence to begin reduce interest rates.

Wider crypto markets saw mixed, mostly flat performance on Monday, as selling in Bitcoin weighed on risk sentiment.

World no. 2 token Ether gained 2.4% to $2,688.56

XRP increased slightly to $0.57, steadying following a strong rally last week.

XRP issuer Ripple Labs was ordered to pay a fraction of the penalties sought by the U.S. SEC for illegal sale of securities by the company.

But the case still did not provide any regulatory clarity on whether crypto tokens were considered as securities.

Among other altcoins, ADA and SOL slipped 1% and 1.2%, respectively.

Memetokens SHIB and DOGE traded relatively flat.