Bitcoin hit a new two-month low on Friday, breaking out of its recent narrow range amid a wave of negative sentiment sweeping global markets.
Bitcoin fell 7.2% last Thursday, the biggest one-day drop since November 2022, when the leading FTX exchange collapsed.
It then fell to a two-month low of $26,172 in Asian trading on Friday, the lowest since 16 June.
A wave of sell-offs gripped global markets, with major Wall Street indexes closing lower on Thursday and Asian stocks starting a third week of losses due to concerns about the health of China’s economy and fears that US interest rates will rise longer given the economy’s resilience.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, remained steady at $1,685.20, also falling sharply on Thursday.
Some analysts attributed the cryptocurrencies‘ fall to a Wall Street Journal report that Elon Musk’s SpaceX sold its bitcoin holdings, writing down their value by $373 million. Musk is influential among crypto-enthusiasts, and bitcoin prices have previously fluctuated in response to his tweets.
Bitcoin has held near the $30,000 mark in recent months, gradually recovering this year after a sharp drop in 2022 when various cryptocurrency companies collapsed, leaving investors with heavy losses.
Cryptocurrency markets got a boost in June as BlackRock applied to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US. Some investors took the move as a sign that the US Securities and Exchange Commission would approve applications to launch a spot bitcoin ETF from various asset managers, including Grayscale.
