Bitcoin (BTC) tumbled back below $27,000 on Thursday afternoon, reversing its advance from a day ago. Over $20 million of BTC futures were liquidated in the past four hours, with 87% of them being long positions. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) was down 2.2% on Thursday. Equity markets closed higher, with a late rally pulling the Nasdaq higher by 1.5%, the S&P 500 by 0.95%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 0.35%. Alex Tapscott, managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners, said BTC has recently performed more like a technology stock than a pure store of value.
Ninepoint Partners’ Tapscott believes that the debt ceiling debate could boost “safe-haven” assets such as gold and bitcoin, but he is not convinced that BTC’s price will go up in the event of a government default. Noelle Acheson points out that if the debt ceiling is raised, money will move out of cash and risk assets into US government bonds, which could be unfavorable for bitcoin and gold. Messari Research Analyst Sami Kassab suggests that bitcoin has consistently entered a bull market within 12-18 months prior to each halving event. Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree Asset Management, said the halving likely isn’t fully priced in.
