The cryptocurrency space has recently lost about $12 billion in only 24 hours, at a time in which the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin failed to remain above the $8,000 mark. The cryptocurrency has more than doubled in value so far this year, but is seemingly struggling to keep rising.
According to CryptoCompare data, one bitcoin is currently trading at $7,600 after falling 3.6% in the last 24-hour period. The cryptocurrency started seeing its price drop shortly after hitting $8,000, and has recovered from a $7,500 low in intraday trading.
The cryptocurrency’s price performance so far this year has seen interest in it grow, so much so that it hit a 14-month high in Google search interest this month. Cameron Winklevoss, a co-founder of the popular Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, recently stated that investing in bitcoin is “not as crazy as sitting on the sidelines when the future of money is literally being built before your eyes.”
Despite the recent price drop, some analysts have revealed they’re bullish as BTC’s mining rewards halving event occurs next year. This, according to some, helps remind users of the cryptocurrency’s scarcity, as block rewards are cut in half.
The recent price drop could potentially be a delayed reaction to Tether, the company behind the popular USDT token, revealing it has invested some of its reserves in BTC and “other assets.” While some claim the firm bought extremely small amounts of crypto with its reserves, New York Supreme Court Judge Joel M. Cohen questioned the paradox, stating:
Tether sounded to me like sort of the calm in the storm of cryptocurrency trading. And so if Tether is backed by bitcoin, how is that consistent? If some of your assets are in a volatile currency that Tether is supposed to somehow modulate, that seems like it’s playing into what they are saying.
Bitcoin’s drop saw most top altcoins follow suit, with some dropping as much as 7% in the last 24-hour period. Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Zcash are among the least affected tokens, being down between 4% and 5.2%.
Ethereum’s ether, XRP, and XMR are all down by about 6% in said period, while other cryptocurrencies like Dash, Cardano, and QTUM dropped by as much as 10%. Bitcoin SV, which recently surged by 80% after Craig Wright filed a copyright registration for the Bitcoin whitepaper, is down by little over 1%.
