Last night bitcoin fell to its lowest trading price since July 2021. The world’s largest and most valuable cryptocurrency has experienced a five day rout, with other currencies seeing similar large drops.
The world’s largest digital currency by market value fell to less than $29,900 last night on TradingView – less than half of its peak price in November.
It managed to bounce back somewhat, rising to $32,650 yesterday evening.
Bitcoin, which hit a high of $69,000 last November, has been dropping considerably in recent months.
The major cryptocurrency has broken below its three-month rising trend line, falling out of the $35,000 to $46,000 range which it had been bouncing between in the first few months of 2022.
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Currencies flourished when low interest rates were implemented worldwide thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
But now that interest rates are being hiked again – including central bank changes in the UK and USA last week – the cryptocurrency has moved in line.
Lucas Outumuro, head of research at IntoTheBlock, said: “Until the market starts looking past the impact that [quantitative tightening] and raising rates will have, I find it difficult for bitcoin to establish a broader uptrend.”
Darshan Bathija, chief executive of Singapore-based crypto exchange Vauld, said: “In light of fears of rising inflation, most investors have taken a risk-off approach—selling stocks and cryptos alike in order to cut down risk.”
Simon Peters, a crypto market analyst at the online trading platform eToro said: “The concern now for cryptoasset investors is when the slide will end.
“The market is caught in the wider adversity of investment markets that are battling to decide where comfortable levels are in the wake of interest rate hikes designed to quell soaring inflation around the Western world.”
Still, bitcoin is up 250 percent from May 2020, up 35 per cent since May 2018, and up more than 6,000 percent since May 2016.
A decade ago, one bitcoin was worth just $5, marking an incredulous 600,000 percent gain in the price.