Digital assets rose this month based on a court defeat for a US regulatory crackdown and on hopes that the country may eventually permit spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
After hitting 13-month highs, Bitcoin lost momentum and is down below US$30,000 as many traders found that beyond the initial euphoria brought on by the ETF announcement, no other obvious catalysts are in sight.
As the world's largest crypto continues to slide below US$30,000, the cryptocurrency market's 2023 advantage over stocks is narrowing. The volume of Bitcoin trades has dropped to a level not seen in 30 months.
A benchmark for the top 100 digital tokens has slowed to a 46% year-to-date increase, not much higher than the 42% increase in the Nasdaq 100 Index of technology equities.
In June, the equity measure temporarily topped the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index on the back of investor excitement about items powered by artificial intelligence.
Institutional Investors Favor Cryptos
But long-term investors have a different take.
