Bitcoin Sees Best Month Since Last Year Despite Wall Street Snub

Bitcoin closed July with an impressive gain of 8.7%, marking its best month in almost a year, according to CoinDesk data.

This performance came without the support of Wall Street, as US spot bitcoin ETFs took in just $205 million in net inflows for the month, their lowest total on record.

The lack of institutional participation behind the rally has left some wondering about its sustainability, given Bitcoin's 26% decline for the year so far.

However, the catalyst for this shift in tone was the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates steady at 3.50%-3.75%, with a 9-3 vote that included a quarter-point hike being proposed by three Fed presidents.

The hawkish dissent from these officials undercut Bitcoin's decoupling from equities, which had shown earlier in July.

Deribit's order book reflected the shift almost immediately, with calls at the $70,000 and $72,000 strikes dropping significantly within a day of the Fed's decision.

A wallet flaw was also discovered in Coinkite's Coldcard hardware wallets, which allowed an attacker to drain funds from over 5,200 addresses, worth about $114 million, due to a firmware update shipped in March 2021.