Bitcoin’s apparent demand turns negative as price struggles with $77K

Bitcoin experienced a sell-off during early European trading hours on Wednesday, reaching a local low of $76,400 before recovering to $77,000. This movement coincided with a renewed negative trend in Bitcoin's apparent demand, an indicator that measures the difference between newly minted coins and changes in inactive supply. Data from CryptoQuant indicated this shift occurred after US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered outflows of $236 million the preceding day.

Concurrent with Bitcoin‘s price action, global bond markets saw a slight easing in the rout observed earlier in the week, with the US 10-year yield briefly dropping below 4.8%. The USD/JPY currency pair experienced inorganic price action at 13:00 UTC, with the pair declining to 158.5 from the 160 level. This movement led to speculation of a central bank intervention, though no official announcement has been made by the Bank of Japan.

Asian equities also recorded steep declines, which analysts attributed to rising oil prices and continued profit-taking in the artificial intelligence sector. South Korea's KOSPI index fell 4.0% to 6,562.72, with chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics experiencing respective drops of 4% and 4.7%. Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 2.9% to 64,325.64, influenced by technology companies such as SoftBank Group. Taiwan's TAIEX also saw a 1.7% decrease. These broad market movements occurred as Bitcoin's apparent demand turned negative.