The main line
Bitcoin prices fell to a four-month low on Monday, resuming the cryptocurrency’s week-long slide that has seen prices fall for other major tokens amid uncertainty over impending sales by the German government and creditors of bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox.
Bitcoin prices fell again on Monday.
Key facts
Bitcoin prices fell more than 6% early Monday morning before paring losses to trade around $55,500 as of 3:15 a.m. EST, still down 4% from the same time of day before.
It’s the lowest price for the world’s top digital asset in months and down about $18,000 from an all-time high of just under $74,000 in March, a loss of about a fifth.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind Bitcoin, followed a similar trajectory, sliding more than 7% before recovering to trade around $2,900 at 3:00 a.m.: 15 am, falling 4% on the day.
The path was also mirrored by Binance’s BNB, Solana, Ripple’s XRP, Dogecoin and Cardano’s Ada – the next largest cryptocurrencies, excluding stablecoins pegged to traditional currencies like Tether and USDC – with declines of between 9% and 11% yield losses of between 2.5% and 7% at 3:15 am
Overall, the total cryptocurrency market had dropped about $20 billion in value over the course of the day as of 3 a.m. EST, down about 2% from the previous day.
Why is Bitcoin falling and the crypto market crashing?
Bitcoin’s selloff on Monday threatens to continue a dismal several-week losing streak for the popular cryptocurrency as it slips from record highs in March. The drop comes amid falling interest in cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), uncertainty over monetary policy and fears that bankrupt Tokyo-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox, could cause a crash as it follows through on its promise to repay creditors. The exchange was once one of the world’s largest crypto platforms, but filed for bankruptcy a decade ago after hackers stole most of its crypto assets between 2011 and 2014. Bitcoin is trading about 10 times higher on Monday than the time when the exchange filed for bankruptcy, and today the amount of bitcoin would be worth north of about $58 billion, according to CNBC. The exchange managed to recoup some funds after declaring bankruptcy, the token worth about $9 billion today, and markets have responded to what is expected to be a massive selloff of Bitcoin as creditors cash out at a much higher price than when they lost the crypto tokens . Bitcoin accounts for more than half of the total cryptocurrency market value, and its fortunes tend to be mirrored by the market as a whole and smaller cryptocurrencies.
tangential
Mt. Gox isn’t the only factor behind the crypto market crash, and the German government is also making waves by hastily selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin for fiat currency. Berlin has been sending its cryptocurrency holdings to exchanges like Coinbase, Bitstamp and Kraken since June as the European government unloads and liquidates assets it has seized from various criminal groups. The transfers have added to concerns of significant selling in the market and, according to Arkham Intelligence, Germany still reportedly holds around $2.2 billion in Bitcoin.
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