Bitcoin's normal sluggishness

Bitcoin has lost 3.5% in 24 hours, having rolled back to $21,100 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Ethereum has lost 6.1% in the same time frame, to $1430. Altcoins in the top 10 have fallen from 3.5% (XRP) to 6.8% (Solana). ¬¬

Total crypto market capitalisation, according to CoinMarketCap, fell 3.7% to $971bn overnight.

Bitcoin continued its corrective decline near its 50-day average on Monday but began to pull away from it on Tuesday morning. Without support from stock indices, the cryptocurrency market is buckling under its own weight with no meaningful growth drivers.

This situation is fuelling expectations of a prolonged lull, which fits into historical patterns. The history of previous cryptocurrency cycles teaches us that even after a bottom is reached, buyers may be slow to buy, as a sustained rally should be expected about a year after the previous peak. But even then, the last, brightest episode of FOMO-based growth will have to wait about another year. The history of cryptocurrencies is still too short to count on any trends. However, a prolonged pause in hype names after a massive sell-off is a familiar phenomenon in equities as well, though without specifying a period.

According to Glassnode, around 80% of bitcoins are already concentrated in the long-term holders' hands, which could indicate the 'bottom' is near.

Retail investors have rushed to buy up cryptocurrency stocks. In 10 days, capital inflows into crypto stocks totalled nearly $1 billion, according to VandaTrack.

A class action lawsuit has been filed in the US against Celsius Network, which filed for bankruptcy on 14 July. The crypto lending platform is accused of violating the Securities Act by selling unregistered securities.

The developers of Shiba Inu are preparing to issue a Visa-backed card to accelerate the burning of SHIB, thereby boosting the price.