Bitcoin Price Falls Below $54,000 After Mt.Gox Transfers $2.7 billion in BTC

Bankrupt Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox has transferred 47,229 BTC (worth approximately $2.71 billion) into a new wallet, making its first significant transaction since May.

This move was undertaken around 00:30 (UTC) on July 5, as reported by blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence.

As of the end of May this year, Mt. Gox’s wallet had transferred around 137,892 BTC, which at the time was worth approximately $9.45 billion. And then the exchange’s actions put selling pressure on the price of Bitcoin.

In recent days, Mt. Gox has conducted several smaller test transactions. This large transfer comes as the exchange prepares to begin repaying its obligations to creditors this month, with BTC tokens totaling about $8.5 billion to be distributed.

Market observers are concerned about the potential impact of putting such a large volume of Bitcoin on the market, fearing a sell-off by Mt. Gox’s creditors who have not had access to their holdings in more than a decade. Still, some analysts suggest that the actual amount likely to be sold is closer to $4.5 billion, which could reduce the risk of a massive market disruption.

Despite these positive predictions, however, at the time of writing Bitcoin is trading at $53,860, reflecting an 8.6% decline in the last 24 hours and over 12.4% for the week.

Since the transfer happened at 00:30 (UTC) it seems that it was the news of it that helped the cryptocurrency’s price fall below the $55,500 level, as the decline began shortly after.