Bitcoin’s price dropped below $55,000 on Friday (26 November) along with cryptocurrency prices across the board.
Bitcoin has been fluctuating between $55,000 and $60,000 over the last week or so, but today it crashed below $55,000 as traditional markets were shaken by concerns over coronavirus, following the emergence of a new Covid variant in South Africa.
Bitcoin’s price plummet levels previously seen in early October come just weeks after the world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a new record high of $69,000 in value on 10 November.
The cryptocurrency market was down by 7.92% on the last 24 hours as of 12.30pm today, according to Coinbase, with cryptos down as nerves over Covid’s impact on markets take hold worldwide.
Bitcoin’s price has fallen by almost 7% at the time of writing (12.30pm) on the last 24 hours, with Ethereum down 8.88% on the last 24 horus and Cardano’s price down by almost 10% on the last 24 hours.
Here’s why the crypto market is down today, why Bitcoin price has dropped along with Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, XRP, Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin – and how much cryptos are down today.
How much is Bitcoin worth today?
On Friday 26 November, Bitcoin’s price was trading down by 6.93% on the last 24 hours at $54,369.75 (£40,821.68) according to CoinDesk.
The crash below $55,000 hit its lowest mark at just before 12pm with $53,747.13.
Bitcoin crashed below its $60,000 threshold on 18 November, with the coin’s price since fluctuating at around $58,000 since.
It came close to rising above $60,000 again on Sunday night – reaching $59,914.93 at 5pm on Sunday, but began to fall again during the first half of this week.
The major cryptocurrency’s price has seen recent gains of almost $15,000 wiped off the board for Bitcoin after it came the closest it ever has to reaching a new landmark threshold of $70,000.
After climbing in value to $69,000 at 2pm on 10 November, Bitcoin’s price fell to $64,292.43 by 10pm the same day.
Crypto data aggregator, CoinMarketCap, recorded a 22.87% increase in Bitcoin’s trading volume on Friday, with $42,432,610,394 worth of Bitcoin traded in the last 24 hours as of 12.40pm.
Why is Bitcoin down today?
Bitcoin’s bullish price rise to near $70,000 in value came as investors hoped to see the $1 trillion market cap remain firmly in place ahead of a volatile trading period.
But it’s fall below $55,000 has come as markets are down due to renewed concerns over Covid-19.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 was down by almost 200 points today, in a 2.72% fall as fears over Covid restrictions and the potential for another Christmas lockdown loom over markets worldwide.
Bitcoin’s price fall over the last two weeks has represented a long-awaited pullback from investors testing the strength of support below the higher thresholds for the coin and to stabilise risk incurred by rising inflation and President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill’s impact on cryptocurrency trading in the US.
The Infrastructure Bill, signed into law by the US President on Monday 15 November, contains provisions that could see cryptocurrency brokers or exchanges have to declare the names and addresses of their customers alongside cryptocurrency gains and tax requirements on businesses or exchanges receiving more than $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency or digital assets.
This week, however, has also seen further signs of concern in global markets – with the Indian Government proposing cryptocurrency regulation legislation which would prohibit all private cryptocurrency holdings.
The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency bill drafted by the Indian Government has seen fears of a crypto ban swell in the country, where Bitcoin’s price dropped in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Such moves to regulate the cryptocurrency market come several weeks after the Chinese Government reiterated its ban on cryptocurrency mining and crypo-related transactions, which it declared to be officially illegal in September.
And despite reports on Tuesday 26 October that US regulators are seeking new ways for banks to hold crypto assets and address their rise, the SEC recently rejected VanEck’s proposal for its own Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Future (ETF).
The SEC cited fears over “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” in the cryptocurrency market as the basis for its rejection of VanEck’s futures proposal, mirroring that of the successful ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF.
Bitcoin futures ETFs are designed to allow investors to make trades on futures contracts and away from the usual means of crypto exchanges like Binance, which have come under greater scrutiny from regulators worldwide.
Through crypto ETFs, investors can speculate on the future cost of cryptocurrencies without having to actually hold it themselves.
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 almost 9% on Friday after hitting a new record high of almost $5,000 in early November.
Ethereum’s price was fluctuating at around $4,050.06 (£3,038.34) at 12.58pm on Friday – down from $4,842.54 at 6am on 9 November.
The hype surrounding popular memecoin Dogecoin had appeared to diminish in value recently as new alt and meme coins take centre stage.
Shiba Inu coin is trading down by roughly 5% on the last 24 hours at approximately $0.000038 (£0.000029) as of 1.05pm today after smashing through multiple record highs in late October.
Dogecoin, meanwhile, was trading down by approximately 8.74% on the last 24 hours at $0.202421 (£0.151909) on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA) prices are fluctuating around $1.54 (£1.15) in an almost 11% fall on the last 24 hours, XRP was down 9.86% at $0.946943 (£0.710393) and Solana at $191.05 (£143.33) as of 1.02pm on Friday.
Why is Cardano down today?
Cardano’s price (ADA) fell by more than 9% on Wednesday after US cryptocurrency exchange, eToro, announced that it will soon be delisting the coin for US users due to regulatory concerns.
“eToro will be limiting ADA and TRX for users in the US,” the platform stated on its website on Tuesday.
“US users will not be able to open new ADA or TRX positions starting on December 26, 2021.
“Additionally, staking for those assets will end on December 31, 2021.
“These changes are due to business-related considerations in the evolving regulatory environment.”
The move has come as a shock to ADA investors as the cryptocurrency has not received as much scrutiny from other cryptocurrencies such as XRP, which has been subject to an SEC lawsuit since 2020.
It is believed that the move from eToro comes in the wake of the Infrastructure Bill’s passage into law and the threat posed to cryptocurrencies which could be deemed securities by the SEC.
While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether function as a form of digital currency designed to be used as an alternative to the British Pound, US Dollar or other currencies, crypto assets as securities would be simply digitalised financial assets – and subject to more regulation and taxation as a result.
According to Coinbase data, the 9% fall in Cardano’s price led to a 95% increase in trading volume on the last 24 hours on Wednesday – with 68% of this accounting for Coinbase customers buying the dip and increasing their stake in ADA.
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 founder 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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