While 2019 has been a great year for the Bitcoin price in general, those who have been following the cryptocurrency market for the past week have witnessed a completely different story unfold.
The Tether-denominated Bitcoin price on cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which is the most active BTC market (according to OpenMarketCap), fell from $9,352.89 to $7,800 in less than an hour this afternoon, according to TradingView data.
At the time of publication, the price of the world’s oldest and most popular cryptocurrency was trading around $8,100, a level not seen since mid-June.
Notably, Bitcoin price volatility has recently decreased, reaching its lowest level since April.
Bitcoin’s current low of $7,800 is 44.16 per cent lower than the high of $13,970 reached on June 26th. Following today’s steep price drop, Bitcoin price is now down 15.52 per cent in September.
Although the highly anticipated launch of Bakkt’s physically settled Bitcoin futures platform got off to a slow start on Monday, there was no obvious news associated with today’s decline in Bitcoin price.
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Altcoins Looking Even Worse
Bitcoin price had a rough day on Tuesday, but the altcoins fared even worse. Of course, cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin tend to fall further when the Bitcoin price falls and spike higher during bull markets.
According to CoinMarketCap’s tracking of 24-hour changes in cryptocurrency prices, Ethereum was down 6.76 per cent against Bitcoin at the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash was down 14 per cent against Bitcoin, and EOS was down 18.85 per cent against Bitcoin.
However, Ethereum recently had one of its best days in terms of Bitcoin-denominated price gains. However, the altcoin is still down 85 per cent against Bitcoin since the cryptocurrency network focused on expressive smart contracts peaked in June 2017.
Several cryptocurrency experts forecasted bullish Bitcoin price predictions over the summer, ranging from $42,000 by the end of 2019 to $100,000 over the next few years.
Why is the Bitcoin Market Down?
China’s crypto crackdown comes just days after Musk’s shocking announcement.
Musk’s decision represents a significant shift for Tesla, which only began accepting Bitcoin as payment for its services in February 2021.
It came after Tesla purchased $1.5 billion (£1.06 billion) in Bitcoin shares, sending the crypto and Tesla’s market prices skyrocketing.
However, due to the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining – a complicated process of minting new digital tokens – Tesla has removed this option for customers.
“We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuel for Bitcoin mining and transactions, particularly coal, which has the highest emissions of any fuel,” the billionaire entrepreneur said.
In a Twitter post, Musk reaffirmed his belief that cryptocurrency has a “promising future” but that it “cannot come at a high cost to the environment.”
Musk has long been a supporter of cryptocurrencies, and Tesla’s decision was felt throughout the market, with the price of other digital tokens falling.
Which Bitcoin Prices Are Down?
Bitcoin was not the only cryptocurrency to suffer from the initial effects, with the majority of the top ten all experiencing value drops.
Dogecoin, which began as a joke in 2012 before skyrocketing in value, has also dropped, whereas Solana has seen its market price rise by more than 8%.
Musk’s influence cannot be underestimated, as even though PayPal, Mastercard, and Facebook have all backed cryptocurrency, Tesla’s announcement still shook the market.
Bitcoin falls to $45,000 after the massive crash; Ether tumbles 15%
The value of popular virtual coins such as Bitcoin and Ether plummeted due to a massive spike in volatility in the cryptocurrency market. The virtual coin market was in the red on Wednesday, following a day in which cryptocurrency prices plummeted due to trading delays.
El Salvador experienced a delay after becoming the first country to officially adopt Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, as legal tender.
Shares of blockchain-related companies fell as well after trading was disrupted by outages. The main reason for the drop in cryptocurrency valuations, however, was the El Salvador government’s decision to temporarily unplug a digital wallet in order to meet demand.
Bitcoin price was trading at $45,474.51, down more than 13.48 per cent from its value 24 hours earlier at 12:00 p.m. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalisation fell sharply to $855 billion, while trading volume increased to $3.19 billion in the last 24 hours. The increase in trading volume was primarily the result of a large sell-off.
Ether followed Bitcoin’s lead and fell after gaining traction in recent weeks. It was trading at $3,352.38, a 14.45% decrease. As a result, Ether’s market capitalisation fell below $400. Because of the increased sell-off, Ether’s trading volume increased, as did Bitcoin’s.
Due to the trading delays, all other altcoins suffered massive losses. This was the first significant drop in the value of altcoins following an impressive rally.
Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Murex, a global algorithm-based crypto trading platform, commented on the crash, saying, “It was a massively volatile 24 hours for cryptocurrency investors.” Bitcoin price dropped from $52,900 to just over $43,000 in a matter of days. This event resulted in a massive liquidation of over 329,000 investors and traders.”
“Ether, the largest altcoin, quickly imitated Bitcoin’s move.” Later in the session, however, there was some recovery. Some Bitcoin whales appear to have bought the dip, as the price recovered slightly immediately after the drop,” he added.
