Bitcoin dropped under $30,000 for the first time since the end of January on Tuesday 22 June. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has fallen over 27% in value since last Tuesday, when it briefly went above $41,000.
The price decline has accelerated in the last two days after China’s central bank urged the country’s financial institutions to cut all money flows to cryptocurrency markets, labelling crypto assets a threat to the safety of the Chinese people’s property.
While Bitcoin itself is not illegal in China, mining and trading activities are, and the authorities have increased the pressure against entities offering such services. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Monday called on the large banks and payment services to “investigate and identify” bank accounts used by virtual currency exchanges and over-the-counter dealers, and block all transactions to them.
Almost all of this year’s profits are gone
Bitcoin fell to almost $29,500 on Tuesday afternoon (14:00 UTC+1) before stabilising at around $29,800. This is only 2.5% higher than the price recorded at the beginning of the year.
Bitcoin has lost over 53% from its all-time high of $64,863 on 14 April. Its current market capitalisation is $564m, down from $1.2trn in mid-April.
The recent price evolution has also triggered several important technical indicators that show a prolonged bear market, including the death cross represented by the 50-day moving average going under the 200-day moving average.
All these events have taken the Crypto Fear & Greed Index back into the “extreme fear” territory, according to Bybt.com data.
Market-wide sell-off
Other major cryptocurrencies were hit even more strongly by Bitcoin’s fall under $30,000, as panic spread through the market and investors abandoned their hopes for a fast recovery to all-time highs in the short term.
Ethereum went under $1,800 and was down by almost 10% in the last 24 hours, and by almost a third in the last week.
Binance Coin (BNB) has dropped 21% in the last 24 hours to $238 and Cardano (ADA) has lost 20%, closing on $1.
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Polkadot (DOT) were also down over 22%, while Solana (SOL), which had held on a bit better recently, was down 26%.
The overall capitalisation of the crypto market went under $1.2trn, with a 10% decrease in the last day, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Source: capital.com
