Bitcoin, cryptos plummet 9% with US tech selloff
Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sank to $35,867 early Friday, its lowest level since Jan. 27. This marked a 9.6% decline in price after Wednesday’s closing at $39,690.
Ethereum, the world's biggest altcoin by market value, also dove below $2,696, its lowest level since Feb. 4. This was an 8.3% loss in price after closing Wednesday at $2,940.
Some altcoins saw their value tumble by up to 20%.
During that period, the cryptocurrency market saw $160 billion evaporating, as its market value dropped 8.8% to $1.65 trillion from $1.81 trillion in less than two days, according to data from the digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.
The decline in cryptos came after a major selloff in tech firms' stocks in the US exchanges late Thursday, such as Netflix and Amazon shares falling 7.6% apiece, while Facebook's parent firm Meta shares fell 6.7%.
The selloff in technology stocks came as investors are worried about the weak outlook of the US economy with fears of recession and the companies' disappointing first-quarter earnings results.
Although the US stock market indices rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ruled out 75 basis points of rate hikes in future meetings, indices gave up all those gains, and even some more, on Thursday.
The Dow Jones plummeted 1,063 points, or 3.1%, on Thursday for its worst single-day performance since 2020. The S&P 500 lost almost 3.6%, its second-worst day of the year.
The Nasdaq Composite fell almost 5% to end the day at 12,317.69, its lowest closing since November 2020.