Voice of America
19 Jun 2022, 09:36 GMT+10
NEW YORK - The price of bitcoin fell below $20,000 Saturday for the first time since late 2020, in a fresh sign that the sell-off in cryptocurrencies is deepening.
Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, fell below the psychologically important threshold, dropping by as much as 9% to less than $19,000 and hovering around that mark, according to the cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.
The last time bitcoin was at that level was in November 2020, when it was on its way up to its all-time high of nearly $69,000, according to CoinDesk. Many in the industry had believed it would not fall under $20,000.
Bitcoin has now lost more than 70% of its value since reaching that peak.
Ethereum, another widely followed cryptocurrency that's been sliding in recent weeks, took a similar tumble Saturday.
It's the latest sign of turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry amid wider turbulence in financial markets. Investors are selling off riskier assets because central banks are raising interest rates to combat quickening inflation.
The overall market value of cryptocurrency assets has fallen from $3 trillion to below $1 trillion, according to coinmarketcap.com, a company that tracks crypto prices. On Saturday, the company's data showed crypto's global market value stood at about $834 billion.
A spate of crypto meltdowns has erased tens of billions of dollars of value from the currencies and sparked urgent calls to regulate the freewheeling industry. Last week, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate to regulate the digital assets. The crypto industry has also upped its lobbying efforts - flooding $20 million into congressional races this year for the first time, according to records and interviews.
Cesare Fracassi, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin who leads the school's Blockchain Initiative, believes Bitcoin's fall under the psychological threshold isn't a big deal. Instead, he said the focus should be on recent news from lending platforms.
Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network said this month that it was pausing all withdrawals and transfers, with no sign of when it would give its 1.7 million customers access to their funds. Another crypto lending platform, Babel Finance, said in a notice posted on its website Friday that it will suspend redemptions and withdrawals on products due to 'unusual liquidity pressures.'
'There is a lot of turbulence in the market,' Fracassi said. 'And the reason why prices are going down is because there is a lot of concern the sector is overleveraged.'
The cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase announced Tuesday that it laid off about 18% of its workforce, with the company's CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong placing some of the blame on a coming 'crypto winter.'
Stablecoin Terra imploded last month, losing tens of billions of dollars in value in a matter of hours.
Crypto had permeated much of popular culture before its recent tumble, with many Super Bowl ads touting the digital assets and celebrities and YouTube personalities routinely promoting it on social media.
David Gerard, a crypto critic and author of 'Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain,' said the recent meltdowns show a failure by regulators, who he believes should have put more scrutiny on the industry years ago. Many nascent investors - especially young people - invested in crypto based on a false hope that was sold to them, he said.
'There are real human victims here that are ordinary people.'
Get a daily dose of Bangladesh Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Bangladesh Sun.
More InformationDublin [Ireland], June 26 (ANI): Team India skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl first against Ireland ...
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 26 (ANI): Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Honorary Secretary Jay Shah congratulated the ...
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 26 (ANI): When Rajat Patidar hit the winning shot to help Madhya Pradesh clinch their maiden ...
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], June 26 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan congratulated the state's cricket team for ...
New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday extended good wishes to legendary Indian batter Mithali ...
St Johns [Antigua], June 26 (ANI): Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced that all-rounder Hayley Matthews has been appointed as the ...
TOKYO, Japan: Amidst semiconductor shortages and COVID-19 parts supply disruptions, Toyota has reduced its July global production target by 50,000 ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Electric vehicle (EV) sales could reach 33 percent globally by 2028, and 54 percent by ...
BERLIN, Germany: To prevent large increases in food prices, officials from G7 countries, including Germany and the UK, will push ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to order Juul Labs to stop selling its e-cigarettes ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: As average home prices surged to a record high, reaching the $400,000 mark for the first time, and ...
MOSCOW, Russia: Russia's consumer price index has fallen by 0.12 percent for the third consecutive week.This drop in the consumer ...