ETF Outflows and Miner Sales Drain Momentum From Bitcoin Breakout

Bitcoin's recent breakout above its June range appears to be losing steam due to increased selling pressure from spot ETF withdrawals and miner sales. According to Wintermute, a trading firm, $390 million worth of US spot BTC ETFs were redeemed between August 10th and 14th, the largest weekly redemption since early July.

This comes as the market is experiencing softer US interest rate outlook, with a near-term probability of a September rate hike fading from 50% to about one-third. Despite this, risk assets remained relatively unaffected on Friday, with the S&P 500 up 0.40%, the long-end of Treasuries down 0.87%, and Bitcoin down 3.12%.

The increased selling pressure from miner sales is also a concern, with Riot Platforms selling 4,300 BTC in Q2 compared to 3,778 BTC in Q1. This contributed to Riot's quarterly net loss of $237 million. However, the company has entered the AI infrastructure business by signing a 20-year contract to sell 191 megawatts of data-center capacity at its Rockdale campus.