Bitcoin Stagnates as Trump's Announcement Looms

Bitcoin prices have been stagnant over the past week, with traders eagerly awaiting an important announcement from the U.S. administration led by Donald Trump. Despite the bitcoin price rally following Trump's election victory, the cryptocurrency has been stuck below the $100,000 mark, even as Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs reveals its bet on bitcoin.

As Tesla billionaire Elon Musk raises questions about the U.S. gold reserve, influential bitcoin executive Samson Mow has warned of potential price suppression as bitcoin approaches a so-called "death cross." Mow, the CEO of bitcoin wallet company Jan3 and founder of Pixelmatic, expressed his concerns at the Consensus Hong Kong crypto conference, as reported by Cointelegraph. He noted that the bitcoin price movement appears manufactured, with peaks followed by steady, sideways chopping, suggesting some form of price manipulation.

Bitcoin's sideways price action coincides with Abu Dhabi's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund purchasing $436 million worth of BlackRock's spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) during the final quarter of 2023. This investment has been described as the start of a global bitcoin adoption race. Meanwhile, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, led by BlackRock's $60 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust, have broken the $100 billion net assets milestone, providing exposure to nearly 600,000 bitcoins.

However, the fleet of U.S. bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows last week for the first time since early January. This, coupled with a sharp drop in the crypto fear and greed index into "fear" territory, suggests a dampening of market sentiment. According to FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich, the current sentiment and capitalization levels have yet to attract sell-off hunters and counter-trend traders, raising concerns about the market's stability.