Bitcoin, ether hit multi-month lows amid recession concerns

Bitcoin dipped to $53,091, its lowest level since late February and fetched $54,112, while ether slipped to its lowest since mid-January and was 16% lower at $2,300

Bitcoin and ether declined on Monday to multi-month lows as concerns over a possible U.S. recession in the wake of soft data gripped financial markets and triggered a rush to safe-haven assets.

Crypto markets have got a boost this year after the U.S. SEC approved an ETF to track the spot price of bitcoin and ether.

More recently, however, bitcoin has declined alongside other assets including global equities in a broad selloff as investors fear that a U.S. recession could be on the horizon, with growing geopolitical worries also weighing. The crypto currency is down almost 20% from its March 2024 high.

It is a big reminder that Bitcoin and crypto in general are risk assets and sit at the pointy end of the risk spectrum, said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

Bitcoin dipped to $53,091, its lowest level since late February and fetched $54,112, while ether slipped to its lowest since mid-January and was 16% lower at $2,300.

Sycamore said bitcoin is testing trend channel support at $54,000/$53,000 area and needs to hold that level to “prevent further capitulation towards $48,000.”

In early U.S. hours Sunday Bitcoin plummeted below $60,000 as a market sell-off continued into its fourth day, with bullish futures bets losing around $200 million in the last 24 hours.

BTC declined 4% in the last 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows, hitting a three-week low at $59,400. Among majors, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin slipped more than 9%. BNB Chain’s BNB, XRP and Cardano’s ADA slid at least 6%. Toncoin fared relatively better with a 1.8% loss.

Ether declined below $2,900, retracing all gains from its run to $3,400 in July as spot ETH ETFs were approved for trading in the U.S. The products have recorded net outflows on six days out of nine days of trading, according to SoSoValue data, seeing $510 million in total net outflows since launch.