The price of bitcoin falls below $20,000 as cryptocurrency continues its great fall
For the first time since late 2019, the selloff in cryptocurrencies deepened on Saturday as Bitcoin slipped below the psychologically critical level of $20,000.
By late afternoon on the East Coast time, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency had fallen by as much as 9.7 percent, to less than $18,600, as reported by CoinDesk. There were lows of less than $18,000 during the day.
According to CoinDesk, the last time bitcoin was at that price was in November 2020, on its way to to an all-time high of about $69,000. It was widely held by those familiar with the market that it would never drop below $20,000 again.
In the time since its all-time high, the value of Bitcoin has dropped by about 70%.
The highly followed cryptocurrency Ethereum continued its downward trend on Saturday.
The cryptocurrency market has been volatile recently, and last week was the worst for Wall Street since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in 2020.
Because central banks are increasing interest rates to battle rising inflation, investors are selling off riskier assets. While higher interest rates can be effective in reducing inflation, they also increase the likelihood of a recession by making it more expensive for individuals and companies to borrow money and by causing a decline in the value of financial assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies.
According to coinmarketcap.com, which keeps tabs on crypto pricing, the total market worth of cryptocurrency assets has dropped from $3 trillion to less than $1 trillion. According to the company’s research, the worldwide market value of cryptocurrencies was over $816 billion as of Saturday afternoon.
After a series of cryptocurrency market crashes, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the United States filed legislation this week to bring order to the unregulated cryptocurrency market. Moreover, the business has ramped up its lobbying efforts, pouring $20 million into congressional elections this year for the first time, as evidenced by documents and interviews.
A financial expert at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the school’s Blockchain Initiative named Cesare Fracassi thinks bitcoin’s dip below the psychological barrier is not a huge problem. Instead, he suggested paying attention to the most current developments at online loan marketplaces.
This month, one of them, Celsius Network, announced that it would be suspending all withdrawals and transfers, leaving its 1.7 million users without access to their money. Also on Friday, Babel Finance said online that it would temporarily halt product redemptions and withdrawals owing to “unusual liquidity pressures.”
