Aptos Leads Losses as Crypto Weakness Continues; Coinbase Shares Fall to 7-Month Lows

Cryptocurrencies continued trending to the downside as recession fears weighed on risk assets ahead of Friday’s key jobs data report.

Bitcoin (BTC) declined more than 4% at one point Thursday before bouncing to $56,500 at press time, off 2.2% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum’s ether (ETH) declined over 4% during the same period, trading below $2,400. The broad-basket CoinDesk 20 Index was down more than 3%, with dogecoin (DOGE), cardano (ADA) and litecoin (LTC) outperforming.

Native token of layer-1 blockchain Aptos (APT) tumbled 7%, the largest loser among the CoinDesk 20 constituents, as an upcoming token unlock event weighed on its price. Some $65 million worth of locked tokens, 2.3% of the current supply, will be added to circulation next week including to early investor, per Token.Unlocks data.

Cryptocurrencies usually underperformed the broader market in a window of seven days before and after large token unlocks over past years, a recent Messari research concluded analyzing hundreds of unlock events over the past years.

Looking at traditional markets, key U.S. equities declined during the morning session in a broader risk-off sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 0.9%, while the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.5% by 12:00 Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 erased its opening gains and stood mostly flat.

Crypto-focused stocks also performed poorly. Crypto exchange giant Coinbase (COIN) declined 1%, briefly slipping below $160 for the first time since February, taking out the lows hit during the early August crash due to the Japanese yen carry trade unwind. Large-cap bitcoin miners Marathon (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) were down 4% and 2%, respectively.

Edited by Stephen Alpher.