Bitcoin’s price hit new lows, dipping to below $57,000 on Thursday—a price point not witnessed since May when the asset was climbing to achieve highs it had not recorded before. This plunge was aroused by defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox conducting trial transactions from its wallet and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transacting $175 million.
Mt. Gox will pay its creditors this month. They lost their bitcoin holdings because of the hack that plundered it, resulting in it shutting its doors in 2014. After a decade-long wait, mixed with uncertainties and multiple delays, the exchange’s bankruptcy estate announced last month that they would repay creditors. About 140,000 bitcoins will be channeled into wallets belonging to defrauded Mt. Gox users.
The sheer number of assets entering the bitcoin circulation has the market holding on. Since it was announced that the repayments would occur this month, bitcoin’s price dipped below $60,000 a few days ago, right after the first day of this month.
Now, Mt. Gox’s wallet has turned active, causing bitcoin holders to panic and sell. Although it only transferred $25 to three addresses as test transactions, the activity indicates it will begin moving heftier amounts to repay all its creditors.
Bitcoin’s price dipped as a reaction to it and can go further, with analysts indicating it may go as low as $50,000. This price movement is also occurring because the BKA has been selling bitcoins amounting to millions of dollars continuously over the past few weeks.
It moved another $175 million of bitcoin from its wallet, with $75 million to crypto exchanges. Wallets often move their assets to exchanges for liquidations, meaning the BKA is most likely to sell $75 million on Kraken, Bitstamp, and Coinbase, the exchanges to which it took its funds.
