Weekly Wrap: Bitcoin Treads Water As Summer Doldrums Grip Markets

Bitcoin's (CRYPTO: $BTC) price was trading at $62,800 U.S. on Aug. 14 as the market finds itself in the midst of the summer doldrums. 

There appear to be few catalysts on the horizon for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies now that the Clarity Act crypto legislation has been shelved in Washington, D.C. BTC had traded as high as $64,800 U.S. over the past week, but the digital asset continues to be rangebound and stuck between $60,000 U.S. and $65,000 U.S. 

There had been hope that light inflation reports out of the U.S. would spark a rally in Bitcoin and other crypto such as Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH). However, that rally didn't materialize and U.S. equities have also drifted sideways over the past week as the artificial intelligence (A.I.) rally moves in fits-and-starts. 

Despite the price of Bitcoin stagnating, there continues to be a recovery in sport Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). After experiencing outflows of close to $5 billion U.S. in June, institutional investors are returning to Bitcoin ETFs. Over the past week, inflows to about a dozen U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs hit a four-month high of $850 million U.S. 

Here's that else happened with cryptocurrencies over the past week…

Strategy Continues To Sell Bitcoin: Strategy (NASDAQ: $MSTR) continued to sell both Bitcoin and its common stock. The company raised $108.6 million U.S. last week through the sale of 1,690 BTC and an additional $653.1 million U.S. from the sale of 6.59 million shares of its common stock. Strategy used the proceeds to buyback 1,152,020 shares of its variable-rate preferred stock (NASDAQ: $STRC) at a cost of $108.6 million U.S. Strategy continues to prioritize building up its cash reserves and ensuring that it has enough money to cover dividend payments on its preferred stock, which yields 12%.