After a tumultuous end for the cryptocurrency market in 2021, Bitcoin’s price has dropped again in early January in a flash crypto crash.
While Bitcoin’s price was trading at around $50,000 just over a month ago, cryptocurrency prices across the board crashed on Wednesday evening (January 5).
But a drop in Bitcoin’s value rippled across major and meme cryptocurrencies alike, as the US Nasdaq stock index was shaken by plans to raise US interest rates and political turmoil in Kazakhstan – estimated by Cambridge University researchers to be the world’s second largest home to crypto mining after China clamped down on mining operations in 2021.
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Kazakhstan: What prompted the Kazakhstan riots and what’s happened so far?
Fears over US interest rate hikes and the impact of protests and political turmoil in Kazakhstan on the country’s considerable mining operations appear to be the forces driving the dip in Bitcoin’s price, as traditional and crypto markets still contend with the impact of coronavirus on global economic recovery.
Bitcoin’s price has now dropped to levels last seen in late September, now trading at roughly $43,000 after the world’s leading cryptocurrency soared to a new record high of $69,000 on November 10.
The cryptocurrency market was down by 2.3% on the last 24 hours as of 8.50am UK time on Friday according to Coinbase, with Bitcoin trading down by 2% and Ethereum and Solana down by 5% and 6%, respectively.
Here’s why crypto crashed on Wednesday and Thursday – and the latest prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, XRP, Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin.
What is Bitcoin’s price today?
On Friday January 7, Bitcoin’s price dropped lower again – potentially marking a return to a $40,000 threshold of support among crypto traders.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading at approximately $42,779 as of 3.20am this morning, according to Coinbase, before sinking to $41,000 little more than an hour later at 4.35am.
In the hours since on Friday morning, Bitcoin has been fluctuating between $41,000 and $42,500 – but is likely to be buoyed by waves of bullish support in the form of rallies which typically follow such flash crashes.
As of 8.45am on Friday, Bitcoin’s price is down by 1.6% on the last 24 hours at $42,185.15 (£31,194.02), with a 35% increase in 24 hour trading volume according to data collected by CoinMarketCap.
Over the past few weeks, Bitcoin’s price has been fluctuating mostly between $45,000 and $50,000 over the last few weeks – hitting a recent high of $52,100 on December 27.
The major cryptocurrency’s price fell below $45,000 to $42,500 at 10.30pm on Wednesday (January 5), with the sudden plummet in the cryptocurrency’s price echoed by a fall in Ethereum price.
The major cryptocurrency’s price has seen recent gains of almost $15,000 have been wiped off the board for Bitcoin after it came the closest it ever has to reaching a new landmark threshold of $70,000 in November.
After climbing in value to $69,000 at 2pm on November 10, Bitcoin’s price fell to $64,292.43 by 10pm the same day.
Why is Bitcoin down today?
Bitcoin’s price enjoyed a bullish rise to near $70,000 in value in early November as investors hoped to see the cryptocurrency’s $1 trillion market cap remain firmly in place ahead of a volatile trading period.
But it’s plummet below $50,000 came in late 2021 as US and UK markets struggled to contend with renewed concerns over Covid-19, the Omicron variant and high inflation.
The latest fall in Bitcoin price came as a sharp sell-off ensued on the Nasdaq index on Wednesday (January 5), with the US central bank poised to lurch away from its coronavirus pandemic monetary policies with interest rate hikes and a potential cut to securities in order to shrink its balance sheet.
500 points were wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq index following the release of minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s latest meeting in December – in which “expectations for a reduction in policy accommodation shifted forward notably”.
The Nasdaq dropped 500 points and was trading down by approximately 3.34% to close at 15,100.17 on Wednesday.
The impact was also felt across other US stock indexes, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) trading down by approximately 1.07% and the S&P500 was down by 1.94% on Wednesday.
But the cryptocurrency also took a major hit as crypto mining operations in Kazakhstan, which have proliferated since China outlawed cryptocurrency mining in the country, went down in a nationwide internet outage this week.
The country has been plunged into political turmoil, after the Kazakh government’s decision to allow market rates govern fuel prices in the country saw the price of liquified petroleum gas double – sparking mass protests over the economy and human rights in the country in recent days.
An internet blackout took place on Wednesday, according to reports by internet disruption observatory organisation NetBlocks, with stalled crypto mining operations reflected in a decline in Bitcoin’s hashrate.
Bitcoin mining pools saw a fall of at least 12% in the number of BTC hashes during the time of Wednesday’s internet blackout, tweeted Larry Cermak, vice president of research at The Block, on Wednesday.
In November, the Financial Times reported that increased crypto mining operations in the country were seeing power outages across the country as energy-intensive mining rigs caused blackouts in several Kazakh regions and the electric grid threatened to ration power supply to some crypto miners.
What are the prices of Ethereum, Shiba Inu and Cardano today?
With cryptocurrencies often moving in tandem with Bitcoin, Ethereum, the cryptocurrency synonymous with the rising crypto trend of NFTs, was trading down by 11% on Thursday after hitting a new record high of almost $5,000 in early November.
Ethereum’s price has dipped below its $4,000 threshold and was trading at $3,237.38 (£2,387) at 8.36am on Friday morning, in a further 5% fall on the last 24 hours.
The hype surrounding popular memecoin Dogecoin has likewise been fluctuating in recent months as new alt and meme coins have stolen the spotlight.
Dogecoin’s price was trading down by approximately 7.55% on the last 24 hours at $0.157279 (£0.12) on Thursday morning, but was trading slightly higher at $0.16 (£0.12) on Friday.
Shiba Inu coin, the so-called ‘Dogecoin killer’ is meanwhile trading down by roughly 9.4% on the last 24 hours at approximately $0.00003000 (£0.00002210) on Thursday morning but was trading up by 0.34% at $0.00002980 (£0.00002200) at 8.40am on Friday
Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA) prices are fluctuating around $1.23 (£0.904632) in 1% rise after dropping by almost 10% on Thursday, XRP was up 2.1% at $0.768864 (£0.567778) and Solana was down by 6.3% at $139.64 (£103.12) as of 8.45am on Friday.
When was the last major crypto crash?
In June, the Chinese Government cracked down on considerable crypto mining operations taking place in the Sichuan province and demanded that Chinese banks and payment channels stop supporting decentralised and anonymous crypto transactions.
This saw Bitcoin prices tumble to below $30,000 in a dramatic plummet from its soaring success.
The cryptocurrency has continued to rise and fall as other global administrations and regulators mull legislation to curb increased crypto activity often attributed to laundering and crime.
Following the Chinese state’s move, countries like South Korea also pledged to tackle the rise in money laundering taking place via cryptocurrency, while the Metropolitan Police announced that it had successfully closed in on a huge UK cryptocurrency money-laundering operation.
July saw the Met seize a cryptocurrency operation valued at £180million in the UK’s largest cryptocurrency seizure to date.
In turn, cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Binance have been feeling the heat across the world as regulators and governments have started to pay close attention to the operations of such platforms in the wake of the global crackdown on crypto.
The result of this saw Bitcoin’s highest prices sliced in half in June, with the coin struggling to break out of the low to mid $30k price range until it received a welcome boost from Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his appearance at major Bitcoin conference in July.
The bullish rise and increased confidence in Bitcoin could see it remain at prices fluctuating between $60,000 and $70,000 in future, but with increased resistance as it looks toward a $100,000 price prediction in 2022.
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