Bitcoin (BTC) continues to face selling pressure nearly two weeks on from the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s exchange-traded fund approvals.
Though the benchmark cryptocurrency traded generally flat over the weekend, early Monday trades pushed the pair 1.6% lower.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was changing hands below $40,900, a 16% decline from the year-to-date high.
Bitcoin’s sluggish performance is partially attributed to substantial cash outflows hitting the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Per the latest data from Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas on Friday, total GBTC outflows have exceeded $2.8 billion, with the likelihood of more being tallied over the weekend.
Investors are heading for GBTC’s exits due to its high % management fees of 1.5%, compared to less than half a percentage point offered by competitors, including BlackRock (NYSE:) and Ark Invest.
But for now, GBTC remains easily the largest ETF in the space, with $23 billion in assets under management (AUM) compared to nearest competitor BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ‘s $1.4 billion in AUM.
Aside from GBTC redemptions, bitcoin’s price is affected by a lot of profit-taking following the 170% rally throughout 2023.
EEthereum’s (ETH) fortunes have reversed elsewhere in cryptocurrency after briefly outperforming bitcoin earlier this month.
The pair penned red candlesticks on Saturday and Sunday before suffering a 1.8% drop this morning.
A week on week, ETH and BTC are around 4% lower, though the broader blue-chip altcoin space has fared worse.
(SOL), (XRP) and (ADA) all lost high single digits to their respective market capitalizations in the past week, while (AVAX) ‘s losses exceeded 12%.
Global cryptocurrency market cap currently stands at $1.61 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 51.3%