Bitcoin Tumbles Below $50,000 as Fear Sweeps Through Crypto
(Bloomberg) – Bitcoin’s losses accelerated, with prices tumbling below $50,000, as investors started to bail on the market’s frothiest assets.
The cryptocurrency tanked as much 18% on Tuesday and traded around $48,750 as of 10:41 a.m. in New York. While the selloff only puts Bitcoin prices at the lowest in about two weeks, investors are starting to wonder whether it marks the start of a bigger retreat from crypto or simply represents volatility in an unpredictable market.
“Today’s correction for crypto assets is part of a wider sell-off in markets globally, being driven by profit-taking,” said Simon Peters, a crypto-asset analyst at the trading platform eToro. “Investors are closing positions, which will have generated significant gains for many of them.”
Bitcoin has been battered by negative comments this week, with long-time skeptic and now Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying at a New York Times conference on Monday that the token is an “extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions.”
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates also weighed in. In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang, the billionaire said he’s not a fan of Bitcoin and warned against retail investors being swept up in speculative manias.
“It’s a pure speculative asset,” said Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic markets at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney.
Other markets that have seen massive gains this year sold off sharply on Tuesday. Tesla Inc. sank as much as 13%, Cathie Wood’s flagship $28 billion ARK Innovation ETF dropped as much as 12% at one point. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which spans Bitcoin, Ether and three other digital tokens, declined as much as 21%.
Bitcoin did rise from the lowest levels of the day after crypto exchange Bitfinex settled a probe with New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations that it hid the loss of commingled client and corporate funds and lied about reserves. Some market participants saying that the agreement, which included $18.5 million in penalties, lifts a cloud over the cryptocurrency market.
Story continues
“On the grand scale of things, it’s less than a speeding ticket,” said Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo in London, a crypto lenders. “I’m just excited that they will be revealing more numbers so that we can accurately assess and hopefully that will create some comfort for the market participants.”
Bitcoin prices have soared more than 50% this year as more investors buy in to the argument that digital currencies can act as a hedge against inflation. A pullback in Bitcoin shouldn’t be surprising “given the current over-leveraged long positions on mainstream coins,” said Annabelle Huang, a partner at Amber Group, a crypto financial-services firm.
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Crypto selloff sends Bitcoin tumbling below $50,000 - CityAM
Bitcoin tumbled this morning as investors ditched cryptocurrencies amid nervousness over sky-high valuations.
Bitcoin suffered its biggest daily drop in a month to fall as low as $45,000 before recovering to just over $48,500. Ethereum is also down more than 18 per cent to $1,512.
It follows Monday’s crash which saw Bitcoin plunge from $58,000 to $47,400. At one point the cryptocurrency fell $5,000 in 10 minutes before paring back its losses somewhat.
Read more: FTSE 100 slips despite optimism over end of lockdown plans
It comes just days after the world’s biggest cryptocurrency hit a new record of $58,354 on Sunday.
Analysts pointed to Elon Musk, who commented the price was too high, for the sharp fall in bitcoin over the past day.
Musk’s electric vehicle firm Tesla recently invested $1.5bn in bitcoin but as a result of his tweets is set to open lower later today.
“There is little doubt that it’s less than ideal for a ‘safe haven’ asset to follow one man’s words to the letter. Bitcoin remains highly volatile, and unpredictable – unless you can predict Elon Musk thoughts in advance,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote said.
Read more: HSBC results: Shift to Asia, office space slashed, dividend returns
“Speculators are clearly hanging on [Musk’s] every word… This kind of euphoria should probably make people nervous but I doubt it will. I’m sure new highs are just around the corner,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
Despite the widespread support, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen warned that “Bitcoin is an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions and the amount of energy that’s consumed in processing those transactions is staggering”.
Bitcoin Tumbles Below $50,000 as Fear Sweeps Through Crypto
The Canadian Press
TEHRAN, Iran — The U.N.’s atomic watchdog says its inspectors have confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium up to 20% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. It’s the latest in a string of violations of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by The Associated Press Tuesday that as of Feb. 16, Iran had added 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) of uranium enriched to 20% to its stockpile. Overall, it increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to 2,967.8 kilograms (6,542.9 pounds), up from 2,442.9 kilograms (5,385.7 pounds) reported on Nov. 2. The nuclear deal signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds). It also allows enrichment only up to 3.67%. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. The following is AP’s previous story. Iran officially started restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities, state TV reported Tuesday, a bid to pressure European countries and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to lift crippling economic sanctions and restore the 2015 nuclear deal. World powers slammed the restrictions as a “dangerous” move. The state TV report gave little detail beyond confirming that Iran had made good on its threat to reduce co-operation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. Iran’s move to limit international inspections underscores the daunting task facing Biden as he seeks to reverse former President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal in 2018, leaving Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia struggling to keep it alive. The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was the most significant pact between Iran and major world powers since its 1979 Islamic revolution, and Germany, France and Britain stressed their commitment Tuesday to preserving it, urging Iran to “stop and reverse all measures that reduce transparency.” “The E3 are united in underlining the dangerous nature of this decision,” the European powers said in a statement. “It will significantly constrain the IAEA’s access to sites and to safeguards-relevant information.” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a new law had gone into effect Tuesday morning, under which Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the U.N. agency. “We never gave them live video, but (recordings) were given daily and weekly,” Zarif said of the IAEA’s access to information recorded by camera monitors. “The tape recording of our (nuclear) program will be kept in Iran.” The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran’s civilian nuclear agency, has promised to preserve the tapes for three months, then hand them over to the IAEA — but only if granted sanctions relief. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough. Since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA, Iran has gradually been violating its restrictions to put pressures on the remaining nations to come up with economic incentives to offset crippling American sanctions. Among other things, the country has started enriching uranium up to 20% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels, and well above the purity allowed under the JCPOA. It has also been spinning advanced centrifuges, producing uranium metal and stockpiling more uranium than allowed. Zarif stressed in a tweet Tuesday that Iran’s new limits on nuclear inspections and other violations of the pact are reversible, insisting that the U.S. move first to revive the deal. In a show of defiance, Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei outlined further developments in Iran’s nuclear program on Tuesday. Over the last three weeks, he told reporters, Iran has installed and started feeding gas into an additional 148 high-tech IR2-m centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear enrichment facility and its fortified nuclear complex at Fordo, bringing the total number of centrifuges to up to 492. Another set of 492 centrifuges will be installed in the coming month, he said. He added that Iran has installed two cascades of even more advanced centrifuges at its nuclear enrichment facilities, but did not specify where. On Monday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also signalled Iran would refuse to capitulate to U.S. pressure over its nuclear program. Khamenei said that Iran could enrich uranium up to 60% purity if necessary, but stressed the country forbids nuclear weapons. Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, such as power generation and medical research. The Biden administration has said it’s ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the deal. Zarif responded to the overture cautiously on Tuesday, saying that Iran is “assessing the idea of an unofficial meeting" with the parties to the accord “in which America is invited as a non-member.” In further diplomatic moves, the new U.S. administration rescinded the Trump-imposed U.N. sanctions and eased restrictions on the domestic travel of Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations. Rabiei praised the steps on Tuesday but threw cold water on hopes for a swift revival of the deal. “While we consider this as putting America on a constructive path, we see (the steps) as extremely insufficient," he said. Before Iran implemented its new restrictions on IAEA inspections, the agency’s Director-General Rafael Grossi negotiated a temporary deal during an emergency weekend trip to Tehran allowing him to keep the same number of inspectors on the ground. Still, he conceded there would be “less access” and urged a political solution during the three-month window of opportunity opened by the “technical understanding” he reached with Iran. ____ David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report. Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press