Bitcoin’s rough week just keeps getting worse.
The notoriously volatile cryptocurrency was changing hands around $42,100 Wednesday morning, down 2.8 percent over the previous 24 hours and a whopping 12 percent since Sunday.
That’s the lowest sustained bitcoin price since early August, according to Coinbase data.
Bitcoin’s decline comes amid a broader stock market pullback related to concerns about a potential collapse of heavily-indebted Chinese developer Evergrande Group.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen about 1.9 percent between Friday and Tuesday, and rose more than 200 points on Wednesday in opening trades, recently at 34,126.49. The S&P 500 is down 1.8 percent and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2 percent of its value this week.
While bitcoin evangelists argue that investors should buy the cryptocurrency as a gold-like “safe haven” in times of stock market turmoil, other analysts say that bitcoin’s decline this week shows instead that it is like any other highly risky asset. Gold prices, meanwhile, have risen this week in response to the Evergrande crisis.
“Bitcoin’s decline today doesn’t seem to be related to anything specific to Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies,” said Anthony Denier, CEO of crypto trading platform Webull. “Today’s decline in the crypto market is because investors are moving to a risk-off strategy.”
Denier told The Post that this pattern “calls into question the claim that bitcoin is a safe-haven asset.”
While bitcoin is the most popular and closely watched digital coin, other cryptocurrencies have had even rougher weeks.
As of Wednesday morning, Ethereum was trading at $2,912 — a 4.3 percent decline over the past 24 hours and 15.2 percent over the past week. Meanwhile, Cardano was going for $2.11 — down 3.4 percent over the previous 34 hours and 12.2 percent over the past week.
Other factors affecting crypto markets include the specter of a crackdown from Gary Gensler’s Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve policy upcoming statement this afternoon. If the Fed signals it plans to taper its bond-buying program that has helped prop up markets during the pandemic, markets could be in for more trouble.