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Bitcoin plunged last week as a confluence of factors sent nerves through the cryptoasset market. 

The world’s largest cryptoasset trended lower in the early week from around $29,000 before a price plunge on Thursday which saw bitcoin reach below $25,000 at one point on eToro - a near 14% fall. But the price stabilized somewhat after the initial selloff and is now trading around $25,700.

Ether saw a similar sell-off, although more muted - down 9% week-on-week. The cryptoasset began above $1,810 before the Thursday sell-off saw it drop as low as $1,600 on eToro. However, the price has since stabilized and now trades around $1,650. 
 

Bitcoin’s worst week of 2023

Cryptoassets saw a widespread sell-off last week on the back of a few significant trends. The clear catalyst was the decision by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to sell its bitcoin holdings which triggered a wider run on the cryptoasset’s price. 

But wider macroeconomic factors appear to have sustained the sell-off. This comes as a combination of bond yields hitting 15-year highs thanks largely to market expectations adjusting on rate levels, plus disquiet among many investors about the state of the property market and wider economy in China.

All these factors conspired to send Bitcoin’s price around 11% lower last week - its worst week of 2023. However, in price terms, we’re only back to levels seen around June - but much of the rally driven by the BlackRock bitcoin ETF news has now been wiped out. 
 

More bitcoin futures ETFs to launch, but spot ETF remains elusive

Asset manager Empowered Funds is set to launch three new bitcoin futures ETFs, according to reports in the Financial Times. The launch demonstrates the continued institutional interest in the asset class but leaves open questions about whether we’ll see a spot ETF approved this year. 

The futures ETFs from Empowered will be enabled to take trend indications to either hold bitcoin in bullish market conditions, or treasury securities and money market funds in bearish conditions. This will, in theory, help investors to preserve capital in what is a volatile market. 

But futures ETFs are still seen by many investors as an inferior solution to cryptoasset ownership. The potential launch of a BlackRock bitcoin ETF sent prices soaring earlier in the summer. With most of that ebullience now lost, a positive update on the situation, as it continues to wait regulatory approval, could have an extremely positive effect on price - were it to be approved.
 

Ethereum Network to launch new testnet

Ethereum developers are retiring the Goerli testnet and launching “Holesky.” Testnets on the Ethereum network are all named for Prague train stations. Goerli has been in operation since 2019 and has served as a testing area for major upgrades to the network such as the merge.

But in testament to the industrious developers for the network, it is now being replaced by an updated testnet, with a focus on infrastructure and protocol development. Goerli has been criticised by some for bottleneck issues that have slowed development down. 

Ethereum testnets are seen as highly successful for improving the network as they allow developers to try out innovations with testnet tokens rather than real cryptoassets such as ether. Newer testnets don’t have caps on test tokens making it easier for developers to simulate large trade flows.

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