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The time of dreams
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.
Bitcoin traded below $20,000 on Saturday, extending the slide that wiped out trillions of cryptocurrency market value.
Bitcoin traded down 8% to $19,029, extending a decline from its November high of $68,924.78. The drop coincides with the Federal Reserve announcing and then starting its interest rate hike campaign, with expectations that the fed funds rate could hit 4%.
Wider signs of trouble in the crypto markets emerged with the collapse of the Terra blockchain in May and worsened this week following the move by crypto lender Celsius Network Ltd. to stop withdrawals.
Additionally, crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital suffered heavy losses and said it was considering asset sales or a bailout, while another lender, Babel Finance, followed in Celsius’s footsteps on Friday.
Bitcoin’s decline means that it has actually cleared the previous cycle’s top.
Ethereum also broke a key level, slipping 10% to $987.59.
Cryptocurrencies often fluctuate wildly on weekends when other financial markets are closed.
Altcoins were no exception to investors’ soured appetite following Bitcoin’s fall, Bloomberg reported. Cardano, Solana, Dogecoin and Polkadot posted 24-hour declines of between 7% and 10% on Saturday, while privacy tokens such as Monero and Zcash lost up to 9%.
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