Bitcoin price drops 17% after reaching all time high
Bitcoin seems to be running out of gas after the world’s flagship cryptocurrency hit a speedbump on Monday.
The famed crypto tumbled about 17 percent to $28,154.11 in early-morning trading just a day after it surged to a new all-time high of $34,544.94 on Sunday, according to data from cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.
Some analysts saw signs that cryptocurrency traders might be rotating out of bitcoin into digital-market alternatives like ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rocketed 27% on Sunday and hit a 35-month high above $1,150 early Monday. Litecoin, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, was changing hands at its highest since April 2018.
However, traders say bitcoin’s drop was not unusual for the volatile asset, whose wild price swings have in part prevented it from becoming widely used as a currency.
“It’s still an unavoidably volatile asset by its nature,”
“For the most part, this looks like a purely technical move, signaled and caused by short-term euphoria,” Joseph Edwards, head of research at the crypto brokerage Enigma Securities, told Reuters.
Bitcoin’s rise in recent times has been fueled by interest from investors hungry for fast gains and resistance to inflation, as well as hopes that it will become a more mainstream digital payment method.
