Following Amazon.com Inc.’s denial on the recent media report stating that the e-commerce giant will start accepting bitcoin payments this year. Bitcoin price falls below $37,000 after briefly surpassing $40,000
The job vacancy from the retail giant seeking an executive to develop the company’s “digital currency and blockchain strategy” had stirred questions among analysts over whether the move could eventually lead to Amazon accepting Bitcoin as a method of payment. An Amazon spokesperson denies that the company will accept bitcoin payment had caused the price to plunge to $37,598.
Investors are rushing to cover bearish bets that fueled the earlier rally that drove the coin at one point up more than 17% on Monday to $40,545, its highest since June 15. More than $950 million of crypto shorts were liquidated on Monday, the most since May 19, according to data from Bybt.com.
“Shorts were piling up as we were moving down, assuming we were looking at a minimum of $25,000, which was expected across the board,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific with crypto exchange Luno. “But then there was heavy accumulation in the $29,000 to $30,000 region which caught a lot of those shorts unaware and hence led to the spring upwards.”
Bitcoin’s current price volatility is part of a wider multi-wave correction since hitting a record in April, Ayyar said. The price could rebound to as much as $45,000 in the near-term before another potential drop to complete the correction, he said.
“We’re still seeing the correction play out,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported a U.S. probe into Tether is homing in on whether executives behind the token committed bank fraud. Ether was down as much as 5%, reversing Monday’s earlier advance ahead of an upgrade due on Aug. 4 that will reduce the number of outstanding tokens by destroying some of them every time it’s used to fuel transactions on the world’s most-used blockchain.
