07 Jun 2022
The entire BTC sell-off since April occurred during U.S. market hours
The entire bitcoin sell-off since April 1st has occurred during U.S. trading hours. The cumulative YTD BTC returns during U.S. trading hours YTD is -32.55% compared to European +16%.
Since early April, BTC has seen neutral cumulative returns during European and Asian trading hours. Meanwhile, BTC’s YTD cumulative returns during U.S. trading hours have plummeted from 4.2% on April 1st to -32.55% by June 6th.This suggests that the sell-off in bitcoin since April has been driven by American traders, which aligns well with the trend of BTC being strongly correlated to U.S. equities ever since we entered Q2, 2022.Nevertheless, this should not be interpreted as U.S. sellers alone contributing to BTC’s weak performance. Traders globally, and in particular, market makers and funds, have likely sought to de-risk alongside the broad equity markets, using Nasdaq and S&P 500 as a proxy for the overall risk appetite.