Bitcoin fell on Tuesday
continuing to erase its weekend recovery, as concerns about rising US interest rates and ongoing institutional selling kept cryptocurrencies under pressure.
Optimism over US-Iran peace talks also faded, as investors anticipated further dialogue on a comprehensive peace agreement.
Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $62,281.0 by 1:53 PM.
Crypto markets were spooked by hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve last week, after most policymakers leaned toward raising interest rates this year. Higher rates are detrimental to speculative, non-yielding assets like cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin ETF Outflows Continue After Six Weeks of Selling
Institutional investors continued to sell spot exchange-traded funds this week after six weeks of significant outflows from the sector. Investors withdrew nearly $160 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs this week, according to SoSoValue data.
While the rate of outflows has slowed in recent weeks, it still indicates that demand for crypto assets and crypto products remains extremely volatile.
Bitcoin has found little support from retail investors. The Coinbase Premium Index, which compares the Bitcoin price on Coinbase—the largest US exchange—to the global premium, showed Bitcoin continues to trade at a significant discount.
This trend demonstrated that US retail demand for the world's largest cryptocurrency has been severely suppressed following this year's painful selloff.
Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Altcoins Fall Along with Bitcoin, Economic Data Takes Focus
BTC/USD
Broader cryptocurrency prices fell along with Bitcoin, with caution also remaining ahead of several key economic data releases in the coming days. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, fell 5.6% to $1,651.18, while XRP fell 3%.
Solana, Cardano, and BNB fell 3-7%.
Among memecoins, Dogecoin lost 5.5%, while $TRUMP lost 8%.
Markets were wary ahead of the release of the US Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data for June, due later on Tuesday.
The May PCE data is due on Wednesday and will be watched more closely for signs of inflation and consumer spending. This indicator is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge and comes amid growing expectations that the central bank will raise interest rates later this year.