Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Tumble as GDP Data Comes In Weaker Than Expected

Crypto markets are trading lower as economic data released Thursday shows the U.S. economy grew slower than expected.

The world’s two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, are down more than 1% in the past 24 hours, dropping to $63,575 and $3,132, respectively at noon EST.

The entire crypto market followed suit, witnessing a 3.6% drop in the combined market cap of all cryptocurrencies.

The U.S. economy’s growth rate stood at 1.6% on an annual basis, below the forecasted 2.4% and trailing the 3.4% growth seen in the last quarter of 2023.

It is unlikely that the U.S. Federal Reserve may lower interest rates swiftly, said Alex Z, senior market analyst at CoinWestern Ventures.

“Higher interest rates often encourage investors to move away from riskier assets like cryptocurrencies and into safer, interest-bearing instruments,” he said in an interview.

Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, Solana’s SOL had the most significant decline, plummeting by 7.4% within the last 24 hours, data from CoinGecko shows.

$210M Longs Liquidated

According to data from CoinGlass, the market slump resulted in over $209 million in liquidated crypto long positions, with more than $52 million in Bitcoin longs liquidated.

The downturn comes as inflows into BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF dry up, ending 71 straight days of inflows, which made it into the top 10 for the longest ETF inflow streak since 2004.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong officially approved spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs yesterday, setting a trading date for April 30.

Over the weekend the Bitcoin halving occurred. While historically, this event has been bullish over the long-term, it’s also often seen losses over the short-term.

Crypto Stocks Take a Hit

Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) experienced a decline of 5% on Wednesday.

U.S. stock futures on Thursday took a dip following the underwhelming quarterly results reported by the tech giant Meta Platforms. Investors are keeping a close eye on the personal consumption expenditures data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 207 points, representing a 0.5% decrease. S&P 500 futures slid by 0.7%, while Nasdaq 100 futures dropped by 1%. Additionally, the upcoming release of the weekly jobless claims data is also on traders’ radar.