Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin bounced back from its recent hard range to hit a two-month low as risk-averse sentiment swept through global markets on Friday.
On Thursday, Bitcoin fell 7.2 percent in its biggest one-day drop since November 2022 as top exchange FTX fell, JEE News reported.
It then fell to a two-month low of $26,172 during Asian trading hours on Friday, the lowest since June 16.
Global markets were hit by a wave of selling, with Wall Street’s main indexes closing lower on Thursday and Asian shares headed for a third straight week of losses on worries about China’s economy and worries that U.S. interest rates may be longer. It will remain high for a long time. .
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was steady at $1,685.20, having also fallen sharply on Thursday.
Some analysts blamed the crypto’s decline on a JEE News report that Elon Musk’s SpaceX sold its bitcoin holdings after a $373 million write-down. Musk is influential among crypto enthusiasts, and bitcoin prices have risen before in response to his tweets.
Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro, said the SpaceX report was an “immediate catalyst” for Bitcoin’s selloff.
“The broader driver is that crypto assets are not immune to the deep risk selling pressure seen across all asset classes,” Laidler added.
Joseph Edwards, head of research at Enigma Securities, attributed the decline in bitcoin’s price to low volatility and a lack of enthusiasm from retail investors.
Bitcoin had been hovering around $30,000 in recent months, only to recover gradually this year after a sharp fall in 2022 as various crypto firms collapsed, leaving investors with big losses.
Crypto markets received a boost in June when BlackRock filed to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. Some investors interpreted the move as a sign that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will approve spot bitcoin ETF applications from various asset managers, including Grayscale.
“The biggest concern right now is that this could be a front run on the outcome of Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC; optimism on that front is keeping markets up even if they have been otherwise for most of the summer,” Edwards said.
