Bitcoin Drops Below $45K, Eyes Biggest Weekly Price Loss Since March 2020


    Bitcoin slipped to two-week lows below $45,000 shortly before press time Friday, with the risk jitters felt on Wall Street the day before reverberating across the globe.

    The cryptocurrency fell to $44,279 at 7:40 UTC – the lowest level since Feb. 11 – having failed to keep gains above $50,000 for the second straight day on Thursday, according to Coindesk 20 data.

    At the current price of $44,300, bitcoin is down more than 5.66% on the day and has lost 22% so far this week. If these loses are held through Sunday’s UTC close (23.59 hrs), the resulting weekly drop would be the biggest since the second week of March 2020 when prices tumbled by 33%.

    Bitcoin has suffered only two double-digit weekly losses and just eight weekly declines in the past 11 months. The data shows the bulls have pretty much dominated the price action since the crash of March 2020 and more so since early October. The cryptocurrency has rallied from $10,000 to above $58,000 in the past 4.5 months.

    The latest bout of weakness may mostly be attributed to rising bond yields and losses in the global stock markets. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to a one-year high of 1.61% on Thursday, taking the year-to-date gain to over 50 basis points and triggering fears of an early unwinding of stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve that pushed stocks, bitcoin and gold lower. These assets have benefitted greatly from the massive monetary stimulus delivered by the Fed over the past 11 months.

    Both bitcoin and stock markets had been showing signs of weakness since the beginning of the week. Bitcoin fell 15% on Monday and Tuesday, the biggest two-day correction in 11 months, after reaching record highs above $58,000 late Sunday. The cryptocurrency looked overheated at record highs and due for correction.



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