Uncovering the Surprising Amount of Bitcoin Held in El Salvador – A First Mover Story
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the cryptocurrency market, you’ll know that Bitcoin (BTC) experienced an 8% drop in the past 24 hours, with its price dropping to $66,800. The widely popular digital asset had recently crossed over the $70,000 milestone, but seems to have succumbed to market pressure. The CoinDesk 20 index, which measures the largest and most liquid digital assets, is also down by 6%. According to data from CoinGlass, long positions worth over $100 million have been liquidated in just 12 hours alone, with a total of $167 million being liquidated in the past 24 hours. It’s not just Bitcoin that’s taken a hit, as assets like gold and Wall Street’s tech-heavy index Nasdaq have also seen a downturn this week.
But market analysts are not surprised by this pullback, which they say is a typical occurrence after a sharp rally. According to Adrian Wang, the founder and CEO of Metalpha, this could be a result of market players adjusting to potential uncertainties in the wake of the upcoming mining reward halving next month.
In Other News: El Salvador Reveals It Has Acquired Over 5,689.68 BTC Through Multiple Sources
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the country has acquired over 5,689.68 BTC – worth $400 million – by multiple means, and that’s not all. The digital assets have also been transferred to a cold wallet, which Bukele humorously referred to as the country’s “first #Bitcoin piggy bank.” He also revealed that the cold wallet is being kept safe in a physical vault within the country’s national territory. This news puts El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings way above previous estimates, with public trackers pegging their total holdings at less than 3,000 BTC ($205 million) just a couple of days ago.
Investment Bank Stifel Recommends Galaxy Digital (GLXY) as a Core Holding For Crypto Exposure
Stifel, an investment bank, has published a research report affirming its buy rating on Michael Novogratz’s crypto financial services firm, Galaxy Digital (GLXY). In the report, Stifel disclosed that its analysts, Bill Papanastasiou and Suthan Sukumar, have set a price target of C$20 for the stock, which is up 4.7%. They also explained the rationale behind their recommendation, which includes the company’s strong exposure to bitcoin and ether, diverse revenue streams, and potential for outsized growth through its infrastructure arm.
And Now for Today’s Crypto Liquidations Chart: Over $800 Million Worth of Futures Positions Wiped Out in the Past 24 Hours
The crypto market can be volatile, and the past 24 hours have been a clear illustration of that. Just overnight, Bitcoin’s price drop saw more than $800 million worth of perpetual futures positions being liquidated across major exchanges. This is seen as a positive development in some quarters, with Swiss One Capital describing it as a “healthy cleansing” of over-leveraged positions.
