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Bitcoin Holds Up as Tech Stocks Plunge, Ether Sinks a Day After ETF Launch

Solana's SOL and Ripple's XRP were notable outperformers.

Updated Jul 24, 2024, 9:30 p.m. Published Jul 24, 2024, 9:30 p.m.
Bitcoin price on July 24 (CoinDesk)
Bitcoin price on July 24 (CoinDesk)

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 on Wednesday each suffered their worst declines since late 2022, but the price of bitcoin (BTC) mostly held up, remaining around the $66,000 level where it was a day earlier.

The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index was also flat over the past 24 hours, with Solana's SOL and Ripple's XRP outperforming the broader market, advancing 3% to 4% over the same period. Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) were lower by 3% to 4%.

Ether's (ETH) price action disappointed investors despite a fairly successful spot ETF debut Tuesday, with ETH dipping as low as $3,300, an almost 4% decline over the past 24 hours. It also hit its weakest price in two months versus bitcoin.

ETH-BTC pair on Binance (TradingView)
ETH-BTC pair on Binance (TradingView)

"The real money interest was strong enough to deem the launch a marginal success, aligning with general expectations, but not yet strong enough to demand a repricing," analysts at crypto market maker Wintermute said. "This may come in subsequent sessions."

The moves came amid a drop in the U.S. stock market, with the Nasdaq plunging 3.6% and the S&P 500 slumping 2.1% amid disappointing earnings results from market bellwethers like Alphabet (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA).

With ether ETFs launched, traders may shift their focus to an upcoming U.S. economic data release on Friday and Donald Trump's speech scheduled for Saturday at the Nashville Bitcoin conference.

Read more: Is Donald Trump Insulating Bitcoin’s Price From The Tech Stock Slide?

Krisztian Sandor

Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.

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