Bitcoin, crypto stocks in the red as traders weigh Tesla's BTC sale
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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) alongside other major cryptocurrencies are sliding in Thursday morning trading as speculators assess Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) move to sell nearly $1B worth of the BTC. 
Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is falling 7.2% to $22.4K but elevated by 9.5% over the past week. Ethereum (ETH-USD) -7.3%, the world's largest altcoin by market cap, is also dipping to $1.48K as of shortly before 10:30 a.m. ET, though still up nearly 24% in the past five sessions. 
From a technical perspective, "the positive momentum can still be conserved if the price rebounds from the current levels within the next couple of days," said Mikkel Morch, executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36. "However, on the Bitcoin 4-hour chart, the price has been printing a bear flag which makes the retest of the lower low - and potentially a breakdown - possible as well."
Turning to Tesla's (TSLA) sale of Bitcoin (BTC-USD), the EV manufacturer's CEO Elon Musk said his company's move was driven by its desire to raise cash in the event that COVID-related lockdowns in China would impact its factories in the country. So, it wasn't necessarily related to bearish prospects for Bitcoin, though Musk did mention that the crypto isn't contributing to an environmentally favorable environment yet given its energy intensive Proof-of-Work-based blockchain. 
"I think this is an example of good risk management from the worldâs richest man," Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, wrote in a note. "Without their Bitcoin sale, their net change in cash would have been negative $89m, which is not desirable, and Bitcoin preceded to fall by around 40% after Tesla sold," he added. 
While Tesla (TSLA) sold 75% of its Bitcoin (BTC-USD) holdings during the second quarter, retail investors are buying the crypto at the fastest rate ever, Sotiriou said, citing data from Glassnode. 
Specifically, the 90-day change in Bitcoin (BTC-USD) addresses with less than one coin is at record highs in a move that demonstrates a vote of confidence in BTC's long-term value, the note said. In the near-term, the token has fallen roughly 65% from its November peak. 
Some other popular cryptos trading in negative territory intraday include: ripple (XRP-USD) -5.6%, cardano (ADA-USD) -8.2%, solana (SOL-USD) -8.1%, dogecoin (DOGE-USD) -6.8%, polkadot (DOT-USD) -7%, avalanche (AVAX-USD) -6.1% and shiba inu (SHIB-USD) -8.6%. 
Crypto-related stocks are also trading in a sea of red, though not to the same magnitude as digital tokens. MicroStrategy (MSTR) -2.8%, Coinbase Global (COIN) -2.8%, Silvergate Capital (SI) -3.1%, Bit Digital (BTBT) -4.9%, Core Scientific (CORZ) -2.5% and Marathon Digital (MARA) -0.5%. 
Earlier this week, (July 20) bitcoin, ether keep grinding higher as Federal reserve meeting nears.