Bitcoin hits two-month low as markets sell-off accelerates – MyCyberBase

Bitcoin has hit a two-month low, extending previous days’ losses amid a wider sell-off across global financial markets. 

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency tumbled 9 per cent to below $25,500 last night, or the lowest it has been since mid-June, according to data by Coindesk.

The sharp fall coincided with reports that Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX dumped some of its holdings in bitcoin.

Tumbling: Bitcoin’s fall comes amid a wider sell-off across global financial markets

Bitcoin has partly recovered today, but remains down by around 7 per cent over the last 24 hours to around $26,400.

Other cryptos have also been hit, with ethereum, the second-largest by market cap, falling below $1,600 last night, before regaining some losses to trade down by around 6 per cent to $1,682 today.

The latest fall leaves bitcoin down almost 20 per cent from a high point of over $31,000 in July.

The cryptocurrency had been hovering close to $30,000 in recent months, having gradually recovered this year after dropping sharply in 2022, when various crypto firms collapsed, leaving investors with large losses.

Some analysts have attributed the latest fall to a report by the Wall Street Journal claiming that Elon Musk’s SpaceX sold its bitcoin holdings after writing the value down by $373million.

The SpaceX report was the ‘immediate catalyst’ for bitcoin’s sell-off, said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro.

‘The broader driver is that crypto assets are not immune to the deepening risk-off selling pressure seen across all asset classes,’ he added.

Global markets have been hit by a wave of selling, with Wall Street and Asian shares closing lower and European indexes all opening in the red today.

Concerns are growing about China’s economy after Chinese property giant Evergrande filed for bankruptcy protection in the US last night. 

Investors also fear that US interest rates will stay higher for longer given a resilient US economy.

Cryptocurrencies are also facing regulatory crackdowns across the globe after FTX’s collapse, with the likes of Binance and Coinbase targeted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier this month, Revolut said it would stop offering crypto trading services to US customers from September, while PayPal announced it would pause all UK customer crypto sales through its platform from October in response to new rules on crypto promotions.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, and it is hard to predict where they will head. 

However, Standard Chartered recently forecast bitcoin will trade as high as $120,000 by the end of 2024 thanks to bitcoin mining becoming more efficient.

Standard Chartered said: ‘Based on their profitability, miners decide how much of the new BTC supply… reaches the market.

‘Increased miner profitability per BTC mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher.’

Two-month lows: Bitcoin has fallen to the lowest level since mid-June