Bitcoin falls 30% in a week

Business News

Bitcoin has dipped below $US5000 for the first time.The cryptocurrency has plunged nearly 14 per cent over the past 24 hours to trade at $US4843 early on Tuesday, nearly 25 per cent down from a week ago.

It came amid a broader sell-off of that wiped nearly $US24 billion off the market capitalisation of more than 2000 tokens tracked by Coinmarketcap.

Bitcoin hasn’t traded at $US5000 since October 12 last year when it briefly passed through the milestone during its meteoric run-up to an all-time high of $US20,000.

The digital currency has hovered around the $US6000 mark for most of 2018 after the entire cryptocurrency market crashed at the start of the year, but many enthusiasts believed it would not drop below $US5000 again.

Ripple, the second largest cryptocurrency, was down nearly 6 per cent at the time of writing, while ethereum had lost nearly 16 per cent.

While speaking to MarketWatch, Stephen Innes, the head of Asia Pacific trading at Oanda, said that the regulatory hurdles that Bitcoin will face in the coming months will likely push its price below $5,000, opening the gates for even greater losses. “The digital token fell as much as 6.3% to $5,202, having plunged through a critical resistance level Wednesday after a period of relative tranquility. I remain incredibly bearish on BTC with the $1,000 level looking as likely as $10,000.

But this is from a longstanding and unwavering view that regulators and the banking system will continue to push back against the rise of virtual markets, and will undoubtedly burst crypto’s balloon as the $5,000 cliff edge is approaching fast.” It remains unclear as to whether or not Bitcoin’s bulls will be able to defend $5,000, which appears to be a critical psychological level.

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