Bitcoin’s price was last lower by nearly 3% to $56,571.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier in the day, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency had slumped as low as $53,513.55, marking its first time trading below the $55,000 level since Feb. 27.

Rival token ether, meanwhile, sank around 5% to $2,971.68.

At one point in time, the entire cryptocurrency market had shed more than $170 billion in combined market capitalization in a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko data.

On Friday, the trustee for the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate, Nobuaki Kobayashi, said in a statement that it had begun making repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash to some of the creditors through a number of designated crypto exchanges.

Mt. Gox’s trustee didn’t specify how much money had been transferred to these exchanges.

He noted that the remaining funds would be returned to creditors once a series of conditions is met, including confirming the validity of registered accounts and completing discussions between the trustee and the designated crypto exchanges.

The trustee is still working to ensure repayments “can be made safely and securely,” Kobayashi wrote, urging “eligible rehabilitation creditors to wait for a while.”

It comes after a small amount of bitcoin was moved out of wallets associated with Mt. Gox, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, with the largest movement being a $24 transfer to the Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank.

Bitbank is among the recipients listed to support repayments.

Recently, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has been pressured by news of collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox preparing the distribution of around $9 billion worth of coins to users.

This dumping of coins onto the market is expected to lead to some significant selling action.

The slump in crypto prices led to hefty liquidations in the derivatives markets, according to crypto data firm Coinglass, which suggests that 229,755 traders had their positions worth a combined $639.58 million liquidated in the past 24 hours. Of this sum, $540.46 million represented long trades — financial positions taken when an investor expects the price of an asset to appreciate over the long term.

Also pressuring crypto markets, the German government on Thursday sold roughly 3,000 bitcoins — worth approximately $175 million as of today’s prices — from a 50,000-bitcoin pile seized in connection with the movie piracy operation Movie2k, according to Arkham Intelligence.

Arkham, which is tracking Germany’s bitcoin wallet, noted the government still holds more than 40,000 bitcoins worth over $2 billion.

Industry insiders still expect bitcoin prices to climb again toward the end of the year, once the expected near-term selling pressure from the Mt. Gox repayments lifts.

Analysts at crypto data and research firm CCData said in a report Tuesday that bitcoin hadn’t yet reached the top of its current appreciation cycle and is likely to hit a fresh all-time high.

Historical market “cycles” have shown that bitcoin’s so-called halving event — which cuts the supply of new bitcoins to the market — has always preceded a period of price expansion that can last between 12 and 18 months “before producing a cycle top,” CCData said in its report.

The last bitcoin halving took place on April 19 this year, so those historical time frames have yet to pass.

“Moreover, we have observed a decline in trading activity on centralised exchanges for nearly two months following the halving event in previous cycles, which seems to have mirrored this cycle. This suggests that the current cycle could expand further into 2025,” CCData said.

Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that he still sees bitcoin hitting $150,000 despite the “overhang” from Mt. Gox’s upcoming disbursement of tokens to creditors.

“If I was invested in crypto, knowing that one of the biggest overhangs is going to disappear in July, I’d think it’s a reason to actually expect a pretty sharp rebound in the second half,” Lee said.

Investors are still awaiting the launch of an ether exchange-traded fund in the U.S., which would follow the approval of the first U.S. spot bitcoin ETF in January.

In May, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule change that would pave the way for ETFs that buy and hold ether.

VanEck, BlackRock, Bitwise and Galaxy Digital are among the companies looking to launch their own ether ETFs.

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3iQ Corp. (“3iQ”), a global pioneer in digital asset investment solutions and one of the largest investment fund managers dedicated exclusively to digital assets in Canada, is pleased to announce that The Solana Fund (the “Fund”) has filed a preliminary prospectus with the securities regulatory authorities in all of the provinces and territories of Canada (except for Québec) in relation to an initial public offering of Class A units and Class F units of the Fund (the “Offering”). 3iQ has also applied to list the Class A units of the Fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) under the ticker “QSOL”. The Fund seeks to become the first Solana (“SOL”) exchange-traded product (“ETP”) to be listed in North America. To learn more about the Fund, visit pages.3iq.io/solana

The Fund’s investment objectives are to seek to provide unitholders with:

• exposure to the digital currency SOL and the daily price movements of the U.S. dollar price of SOL; and
• the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation.

3iQ will serve as the investment manager and portfolio manager of the Fund. The agent for the Offering is Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the “Agent”), with Tetra Trust Company and Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC serving as custodians of the Fund. When available, 3iQ expects to stake the SOL held in the Fund’s portfolio in order to earn rewards for the Fund, which rewards will, following the deduction of applicable fees, be reinvested in the Fund for the benefit of the unitholders.

The Fund will represent another trailblazing industry first in 3iQ’s well-established history of leadership and innovation in digital assets. 3iQ launched both The Bitcoin Fund (TSX: QBTC) and The Ether Fund (TSX: QETH), as the first publicly traded bitcoin and ether funds in Canada. Additionally, The Ether Fund and the 3iQ Ether Staking ETF (TSX: ETHQ) became the first ETPs in North America to include staking ether as part of their investment strategies.

“3iQ seeks to set a global standard of excellence and we’re proud to work closely with the securities regulatory authorities to responsibly enhance the digital asset investment landscape in Canada,” said Greg Benhaim of 3iQ. “As pioneers in digital asset investment management, we look forward to continuing our mission to deliver regulated investment vehicles – embodying the highest standards and working with best-in-class partners – for individual and institutional investors to efficiently access the growing crypto asset class.”

SOL is the native digital asset to the Solana blockchain, a decentralized network designed for high-performance decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Often considered as a contender to Ethereum, Solana boasts impressive transaction speeds and scalability. Launched in 2020, SOL has become a significant player in the development of smart contracts, attracting developers and users with its fast processing and proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Currently the second-largest smart contract platform by market capitalization and trading volume, Solana offers a robust environment for the next generation of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and is the natural next choice of digital asset for 3iQ to structure into an ETP.
About 3iQ Corp.

Founded in 2012, 3iQ is one of the world’s leading digital asset investment fund managers, offering investors convenient and familiar investment products to gain exposure to digital assets. 3iQ was the first Canadian investment fund manager to offer public bitcoin investment funds: The Bitcoin Fund (TSX: QBTC) (TSX: QBTC.U) and the 3iQ Bitcoin ETF (TSX: BTCQ) (TSX: BTCQ.U), as well as public ether investment funds: The Ether Fund (TSX: QETH.UN) (TSX: QETH.U) and the 3iQ Ether Staking ETF (TSX: ETHQ) (TSX: ETHQ.U). To learn more about 3iQ, visit 3iq.io.