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Bitcoin and other crypto-assets sink as a result of flight from risk

Bitcoin and ether fell to multi-month-lows on Friday. cryptocurrencies were swept up as part of a wider flight from riskier investments, as investors became worried about high tech valuations. They also lost bets that the U.S. would soon cut interest rates.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world, dropped 5.5% to $81,668, its lowest level in seven months. Ether fell more than 6%, to $2,661.37. This is its lowest level in four months.

Both tokens have fallen by about 12% this week.

Cryptocurrencies can be a good indicator of the risk appetite in the market. Their recent slide shows how volatile and fragile markets have become in recent weeks, as high-flying stocks in artificial intelligence plummeted and volatility spiked.

CRYPTOCURRRENCIES LOSE $1,2 TRILLION IN SIX WOES

Tony Sycamore is a market analyst for IG. He said that the drop in bitcoin could be a sign of a general risk sentiment.

According to CoinGecko, the market tracking company, about $1.2 trillion was wiped from the value of all cryptocurrency in the last six weeks.

The prices of Hong Kong listed spot bitcoin exchange traded funds launched by China AMC Harvest and Bosera each fell nearly 7% on Friday.

Fall from Grace

Bitcoin's fall follows a stellar year in which it reached a record-high of over $120,000 in October. This was boosted by favorable regulatory changes around the world towards crypto assets.

Analysts say that the market is still scarred from a record-breaking single-day drop last month, which saw positions liquidated to the tune of more than $19 Billion.

Sycamore said, "The market is feeling a little dislocated and a lot fractured since the selloff.

Bitcoin is down nearly 19% for the year and has erased its gains of the past year.

Citi analyst Alex Saunders stated that $80,000 was an important level, as it is about the average amount of bitcoin held in ETFs.

The crypto selloff also has hurt the share prices of stockpilers. This follows a boom of public digital asset treasury firms this year, as corporations took advantage of rising cryptocurrency prices to purchase and hold them on their balance sheet.

Shares of Strategy have dropped 11% in the past week, and are down almost 4% at premarket, as they remain at a one-year low.

JP Morgan warned in a note published this week that if the company is not included in certain MSCI equity indices, it could lead to forced sales by funds tracking them.

Metaplanet, its Japanese counterpart, has fallen about 80% since a peak in June.

The crypto exchange Coinbase is heading for its worst losing streak since more than a week.

MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, and the Winklevoss Twins' newly listed Gemini have all fallen by a combined 62% since its listing.

CryptoQuant, a digital asset research company, said in its weekly crypto report published on Wednesday that "Bitcoin markets are at their most bearish since the bull cycle began in January 2023."

We are likely to have seen the majority of this cycle's wave of demand pass." Reporting by Rae Wee and Niket Nishant. Kevin Buckland, Mark Potter and Kevin Buckland edited the story.

(source: Reuters)