The United States Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shared a new report that was supposedly good news for the entire market but turned out to hurt the cryptocurrency industry, leading this week's edition of CryptoWatch. Additionally, the United States' woes in the crypto industry continue as the court gave a green light to the Department of Justice to sell 69,000 worth of Bitcoin.
Also, take a look at the top coins and their prices in the market as this week starts, so that you can familiarize yourself with how the industry is gearing up for another week of investments and movements in the market.
US JOLTS Report Led to Crypto Investors Dumping Assets
The cryptocurrency market is facing massive woes at the start of 2025, and it was intensified by the US JOLTS report which talked about the massive improvements in the country's job market. The report talked about how the economy grew and bounced back, and there are now 8.098 million job openings in the country which is over 30 million more than the initial estimates.
However, it led to many crypto investors dumping the assets they own, particularly as according to Forbes, these people have jumped into 'fear selling', with one event seeing $205 million worth of crypto dumped in only an hour.
It was revealed that investors are fearing the expected high interest rates from the Federal Reserve's rate cuts whichdirectly affects volatile and risk-on assets like cryptocurrency, based on predictions. Lower rate cuts have been the most beneficial for cryptocurrencies over the past years.
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US DOJ to Sell 69,000 Bitcoins From Hacker
The United States court gave its authorization to the Department of Justice to sell as much as 69,370 Bitcoins whichthey seized from the infamous Silk Road, from a hacker who handed over the assets. However, it is already stirring controversy in the market as it may significantly weaken the industry starting this early 2025, and it was revealed that it could mess with the plans that President-elect Donald J. Trump has in store for the industry.
When the US followed up with the Silk Road investigations in 2020, they found that the illegal marketplace that was closed in 2012 was hacked by a criminal, who when approached by the government, handed over the assets.
After much was said and done regarding the assets, the Justice Department wants to sell off the coins, and based on last week's Bitcoin valuation, it could fetch a total of nearly $6.4 billion. However, it was said to harm Trump's plans for a US crypto reserve, and investors fear that it may significantly impact the industry's prices.
Top Crypto Prices in the Market Now
The global cryptocurrency industry is now struggling, and much like during the first week of 2025, the market is still facing a bright red graph on each respective top coin's charts as they are seeing poor performances. As per CoinMarketCap, the Fear and Greed index is now at a neutral spot with a score of 47, with the top coin Bitcoin stilldominant.
However, all of the top five coins, as well as the entire top 10 list are struggling, especially as it is far from its valuation from last December 2024.
- Bitcoin (BTC) - Price: $91,419.94 | 7.93 percent decrease over the past seven days
- Ethereum (ETH) - Price: $3,075.11 | 15.63 percent decrease over the past seven days
- Tether (USDT) - Price: $0.999 | 0.07 percent decrease over the past seven days
- XRP (XRP) - Price: $2.40 | 0.12 percent decrease over the past seven days
- Binance Coin (BNB) - Price: $669.42 | 6.74 percent decrease over the past seven days
