Bitcoin Closes Into Bear Market Territory, Slips Nearly 20%

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Bitcoin is closing in on bear market territory as the world’s largest cryptocurrency has plunged nearly 20% in less than two weeks.

The crypto was down more than 5% on Friday morning from the previous day and was last seen at around $ 56,600 per coin, around 18% below its high of $ 69,000 reached earlier this month -this.

The price of bitcoin has now been dropping for six straight days, and the drop spreads widely to all cryptocurrencies.

Ether, the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain and the second largest crypto, also fell about 15% from its peak of nearly $ 4,860 per coin.

The price of Bitcoin has now been falling for six consecutive days. Here, the crypto share price as of Friday morning.

The digital currency was last seen trading hands at $ 4,125 per coin, down more than 2.5% in the past 24 hours.

Smaller tokens, including binance, solana and cardano coins, also all fell over the past day, and each has fallen 19% to 24% from highs seen earlier this month.

This type of volatility is something seasoned crypto investors expect.

After hitting a record high this spring, bitcoin fell more than 50% over the summer before recovering and setting a new record.

Market volatility is something crypto experts have come to expect.

And crypto saw even bigger price swings at the start of this decade, when bitcoin was still a relatively niche project with far fewer holders.

“In the Bitcoin winter of 2016/17, what really took crypto’s breath away was when interest rates rose and cash was drained from the system,” Jamie Cox, financial advisor and managing partner of Harris Financial Group, Bloomberg says.

Crypto investors and speculators often use the term “winter” to refer to periods of huge price declines that occur shortly after rapid rallies that drive prices up. One of those winters hit in 2017 after bitcoin went from $ 900 per coin to a record high of $ 20,000 per coin.

Investors use the term “winter” to describe a period of significant price decline. Getty Images

“Correcting bitcoin is not a big deal,” wrote Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Foreign Exchange Oanda, in a note to Bloomberg.

While a breakout at $ 50,000 “would represent a significant correction from highs, it would still be relatively minor considering how far we’ve come in recent months.”

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