On Tuesday, the price of Bitcoin remained stagnant as the much-anticipated halving event passed without significant price action, while capital outflows from investment products persisted amid uncertainty surrounding higher interest rates.
Despite the launch of a new protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain, which resulted in increased on-chain activity, the move failed to provide significant support to Bitcoin’s price, overshadowing the significance of the halving event.
Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin experienced a marginal decline of 0.1%, settling at $66,318.6 by 01:26 ET (05:26 GMT).
Bitcoin’s price stagnation coincided with data from digital assets manager CoinShares, revealing that Bitcoin investment products, particularly exchange-traded funds (ETFs), witnessed outflows of approximately $192 million in the week ending April 21. Notably, U.S. ETFs recorded outflows of $244 million during the same period.
While the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year drove Bitcoin prices to record highs in March, the token has since remained within a narrow range of $60,000 to $70,000 amid diminishing excitement over ETFs.
Recent weeks have seen sustained outflows from crypto ETFs, as investors grew more skeptical about potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Lower interest rates have historically driven long-term gains in the crypto sector, benefiting from increased speculation in a high-liquidity environment. However, the prospect of higher interest rates, following hawkish signals from the Fed and persistent inflation data, presents a less favorable environment for cryptocurrencies.
In contrast, other crypto tokens experienced marginal strength on Tuesday, although they remained largely rangebound due to the absence of significant positive catalysts for the sector. Ethereum, the world’s second-largest token, declined by 1.3% to $3,184.07, while Solana and XRP registered gains of 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively. However, further advances in altcoins were limited as traders maintained their focus on Bitcoin.
Despite the subdued performance of crypto tokens, crypto-related stocks saw some upward movement on Monday. The launch of the “Runes” protocol on Bitcoin, facilitating token minting on the blockchain, led to a spike in Bitcoin transaction fees, benefiting crypto stocks. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA), Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), and MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) all surged between 6% and 13% on Monday.