- Bitcoin’s value has dropped by almost 9% since last Thursday.
- The total value of the entire cryptocurrency market dropped by $1 billion in the past 24 hours.
- SpaceX sold off its Bitcoin holdings, which caused a panicked reaction in the crypto market.
Bitcoin’s value has taken a significant hit, dropping by almost 9% since last Thursday. This decline in its price coincides with a wider trend of selling off risky investments. One factor fueling investor worries was news that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had decided to distance itself from the world of cryptocurrency.
A cryptocurrency trading platform called CoinGlass reported that over the past 24 hours, the total value of the entire cryptocurrency market dropped by $1 billion. What’s interesting is that nearly half of this drop can be attributed to Bitcoin alone.
As of early Friday, the value of Bitcoin was hovering around $26,327. This represents a considerable 16% decrease from its highest point earlier this year in July, based on data from CoinMarketCap.
Interestingly, the market downturn on Thursday didn’t only affect stocks; even typically safer investments like government bonds saw a dip. This overall slump followed concerns expressed by officials at the US Federal Reserve regarding the ongoing problem of high inflation. This raised the possibility of another interest rate increase.
An article by The Wall Street Journal revealed that SpaceX decided to decrease the value of its Bitcoin holdings by a substantial $373 million between dubetween020 and 2021. Subsequently, the company sold off its Bitcoin. This news caused what Hani Abuagla, a senior market analyst at online broker XTB, referred to as a “panicked reaction in the crypto market.”
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It’s worth noting that Elon Musk has been quite vocal in supporting Bitcoin. He initially announced in early 2021 that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, although those plans were later abandoned. Tesla also sold off a significant portion of its Bitcoin holdings last year.
Lately, the cryptocurrency market has faced increased scrutiny from regulators in the United States. In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC alleged that Coinbase was operating as an unregistered broker. Coinbase strongly denied these allegations.