Bitcoin fell to $68,000, its lowest price since August. Xapo Bank's CEO ties the drop to investors raising cash for Anthropic's IPO, while other analysts point to a broader move away from risk.
Bitcoin sank to $68,000 overnight, its lowest price since August, extending a slide of more than 20% since early October. Xapo Bank CEO Seamus Rocca attributes the latest dip to demand for Anthropic's upcoming stock market debut, though not every analyst agrees.
Rocca said Anthropic's subscription books received six times more orders than shares available, pulling capital out of liquid markets. The offering is looking to raise as much as $64.4 billion. According to Rocca, investors may be selling bitcoin and other liquid assets to free up cash for it.
Analysts doubt that Nvidia drove the drop
Rocca also cited swings in tech valuations after Jensen Huang's sudden departure from Nvidia, and the prospect of Strategy's removal from MSCI global indexes. According to Rocca: "liquid assets like bitcoin are often the first source of funding" when investors scramble for allocations.
However, Mark Connors of Risk Dimensions and Chris Sullivan of Hyperium Decimus see no direct link between Nvidia's troubles and bitcoin. Instead, Sullivan pointed to short open interest that exceeds the August peak and large outflows from BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
Meanwhile, the selloff has also hit the metals market, which adds to the view among some that investors are dumping riskier assets across the board. Jim Ferraioli of the Schwab Center for Financial Research noted that the timing of the selloff, around 11 p.m. Eastern, suggests neither Nvidia nor Strategy was necessarily the trigger.
SpaceX IPO offers a possible roadmap
Matt Cole, CEO of Strive, compared the current slide with the run-up to SpaceX's June listing. Bitcoin fell 19% in the 50 days before SpaceX went public, against an 18% drop over the same period ahead of Anthropic's planned listing, Cole said.
After the SpaceX IPO, bitcoin hit a low 18 days later before it recovered, and by day 100 it was up 28% from its listing price. Cole said a repeat would put bitcoin near $90,000 by late February.
But the comparison has limits. Bitcoin's decline around the SpaceX IPO also coincided with concerns about bitcoin sales from Strategy, which makes it hard to pin that drop solely on the offering. Strategy's MSCI index removal takes effect at the close of Nov. 30.
Sources: CoinDesk, crypto.news
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
