Bitcoin plunges 30% to $30,000 at one point amid broad cryptocurrency sell-off
Bitcoin plunged to near $30,000 at one point on Wednesday morning, continuing a major sell-off in the cryptocurrency markets that began a week ago.
The digital currency was down about 13% for the day shortly before noon ET at $37,490, according to Coin Metrics. It hit as low as $30,001.51 as the selling intensified Wednesday morning before paring some of those losses. The cryptocurrency hasn’t traded below $30,000 since late January.
At its intraday low, bitcoin’s loss for the past week was more than 40%.
That means bitcoin has now erased all its gains following Tesla’s announcement that it would purchase $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. It’s also down more than 50% since hitting a record high of $64,829 in mid-April.
Other cryptocurrencies also plunged on Wednesday. Ether, the digital currency that powers the Ethereum blockchain, was down more than 20% at $2,699, according to Coin Metrics.
Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke and has been talked up by Musk, fell more than 18% to about 39 cents.
Negative news over the past week has dampened sentiment for bitcoin.
Reference: CNBC
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