Not just bags and bonds. The rain of sales that has hit the markets since last week has also infected cryptocurrencies, risky assets par excellence, with the bitcoin which in mid-morning fell to 23.572 dollars (22.598 euros), marking a decrease of more than 13%. Since the all-time high reached last November, bitcoin has left over 60 percent on the ground of its value, returning to the levels of December 2020. The market capitalization has also fallen sharply, collapsing to 450 billion dollars.
Bitcoin: Celsius suspends withdrawals
The speculative wave that is hitting all the financial markets due to the tightening of central banks and high inflation is certainly contributing to the disastrous fall of the "queen of cryptocurrencies". But today's sales were also triggered the decision of Celsius, one of the largest cryptocurrency lending firms in the world with over $20 billion in assets, which has announced plans to suspend withdrawals from user accounts, exchanges and transfers of tokens between accounts, without providing a date for the resumption of activities. The motivation? “Extreme market conditions,” claims the platform. "We are adopting this measure today - explains the New Jersey group in a note - to put Celsius in a better position and to be able to honor, over time, its obligations regarding withdrawals".
Other cryptocurrencies also collapse
Along with bitcoin the whole cryptocurrency sector collapses: ethereum drops 18% to 1193 dollars for a capitalization of 147 billion, while Monero drops 17% to 137 dollars. Currently, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is below trillion.
“The crypto remain at the mercy of the Fed and closely correlated to the Nasdaq and other risk assets,” said Antoni Trenchev of the Nexo platform to the Bloomberg agency: “We have come to hear forecasts of Bitcoin at $15 or even below $10, which says a lot about the type of scenario macros that virtual currencies are facing for the first time, as well as levels of fear”.
