Crypto crash live: Bitcoin back up above key milestone, but crypto market below $900B
BTC and other major cryptocurrencies see overnight gains
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After sinking below $18,000 on Saturday, Bitcoin has grown by over 8 per cent in the last day and is slightly above the $20,000 mark.
However, the global crypto market value is still below the $1 tn mark at about $880 bn.
Many analysts predicted that last week’s low may be the bottom of the cycle, but others have warned that more volatility may follow.
BTC remains over 70 per cent down from its all-time high in November 2021.
Since the crypto market crash earlier this month that brought the global market cap below $1 tn, leading tokens, Bitcoin and Ethereum have continued to sink, dropping in value by over 20 per cent in the last week.
The failure of two major cryptocurrency projects – Terra Luna and Celsius – both intended as ways of promoting the stability of digital finance, has been linked to market volatility.
Crypto exchange Coinbase also announced that it is culling over 1,000 employees after previously rescinding job offers, however Binance has announced it is hiring 2,000 more staff.
Bitcoin sees largest exchange inflows since 2018 bottom
Popular crypto market analyst Lark Davis has noted that cryptocurrency exchanges are currently experiencing their largest inflows since 2018, when the market was bottoming out following the 2017 price peak.
“Every time the market tanks investors rush to panic sell the lows,” Davis writes.
Bitcoin price ‘yet to hit freezing point’ in crypto winter
Not everyone is convinced that $20,000 will be bitcoin’s bottom in this cycle, with some analysts pointing to the +80 per cent price drops following previous all-time highs.
These corrections typically last for years, not months, meaning we could be in the midst of a so-called ‘crypto winter’.
We’ve heard from Dr Lil Read, senior thematic analyst at GlobalData, who gives a decidedly bearish outlook on bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market.
We’re plummeting into a cold crypto winter, and we haven’t hit the freezing point yet. Rumours and fears are swirling that bitcoin will drop below $20,000 amid wider volatility in financial markets and sell-offs in other asset classes. This is a generous, rose-tinted outlook on a 6-12-month view. Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins have plunged in value, and the bottom is yet to come.
Bitcoin bounces off four-year moving average
Bitcoin came within a couple of hundred dollars of dropping to $20,000 yesterday, which holds alot of significance for adherants to a particular view on the cryptocurrency’s cyclical nature.
It is a fact that anyone who has bought and held bitcoin for at least four years has never lost money. For some this is proof of its intrinsic worth as a store of value, however yesterday BTC came within 1 per cent of destroying this notion by dropping below the 2017 price peak.
It’s for this reason that certain crypto market analysts are saying yesterday’s price level marked the bottom, pointing to BTC’s four-year simple moving average.
Others have dismissed this analysis and claim the latest recovery is just a “dead cat bounce” on the way to more losses.
Tether sees another wave of redemptions
Investors have pulled out nearly $1.6 billion in 48 hours from Tether’s USDT.
The stablecoin’s circulating supply has dropped to about $70 bn, the lowest since October 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin miners scaling down production
Bitcoin miners are reportedly scaling down production due to the crypto market crash and surging energy costs.
The bitcoin hash rate, which is a measure of the amount of power spent for minting new coins, has slipped by 4 per cent since the beginning of this week, according to data from Blockchain.com.
“Currently, it’s not fun to be in the mining business,” Alexander Neumueller, digital assets project lead at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, said according to the Financial Times.
Bitcoin sinks but regains value
After sinking very close to the $20,000 mark on Wednesday, Bitcoin has marginally risen to over $22,000, growing in value by about 3 per cent in the last day.
The leading cryptocurrency is still down by over 25 per cent compared to its price last week.
Ethereum has also grown by over 2 per cent in the last day, but is down by over 30 per cent compared to its value a week ago.
Cardano, polkadot, and dogecoin have grown by over 10 per cent in the last 24 hours.
The overall crypto market has grown by 3 per cent in the last day, but is still below the $1 tn mark.
‘Bitcoin is the best performing asset’: MicroStrategy CEO responds to price crash
We reported earlier that more than $1 billion has been wiped from MicroStrategy’s bitcoin holdings following the latest market downturn.
CEO Michael Saylor has today addressed those losses on live TV, appearing on CNBC to say he has a long-term view of the bitcoin market, noting that bitcoin has never moved below its four-year simple moving average in its history. That means anyone who has ever bought bitcoin and held it for more than four years has not lost money.
“I think it’s been a net positive,” he told CNBC.
“Over any time frame - two years, four years, eight years - bitcoin is the best performing asset, I can’t come up with a better idea.”
Coinbase’s reduction in staff shows shows the dangers of relying on HODL, instead of a calculated approach to the crypto industry, according to Dmitry Gooshchin, co-founder of AI trading platform EndoTech.
“Investors and pioneers have failed to factor market volatility into their business models, which is an oversight given that volatility is an inherent component of this young market. It’s clear that both investors and crypto pioneers took a HODL approach instead of one that represents a more calculated approach to this nascent industry”, Mr Gooshchin said.
Crypto exchange Binance is hiring
Just a day after Coinbase announced that it would be firing 18 per cent of its workforce - totalling roughly 1,100 people - rival crypto exchange Binance has announced that it is hiring.
CEO Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, said the company has 2,000 open positions, which he attributed to Binance not splashing the cash on expensive crypto ads and sponsorship deals during the latest bull run.
Crypto crash: MicroStrategy’s bitcoin losses top $1 billion
Today’s losses mean MicroStrategy, the world’s biggest corporate investor in bitcoin, is now down more than $1 billion from its initial investment.
CEO Michael Saylor remains adamant that the firm won’t sell its holdings, and that previous concerns on a margin call on one of its loans were over stated.
After spending nearly $4 billion on its stockpile, MicroStrategy’s BTC is now worth less than $2.7 billion. Advocates would say that the USD value may drop but the number of bitcoins remains the same.
You can read more about it here.
The world’s biggest bitcoin investor has now lost more than $1 billion
Michael Saylor says he has no plans to sell as cryptocurrency crashes further on Wednesday
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