The parabolic cryptocurrency market, which raised the bitcoin rate by almost 100% in seven weeks, ended in a “bloody” sale, in which an amount equal to the Austrian GDP burned up in two days.
Having shown an all-time high of 58.2 thousand dollars on Sunday, February 21, Bitcoin is rapidly falling for the second day in a row, losing 20% since the beginning of the week.
At 15.00 Moscow time, the rate dropped to $ 46,245, which is $ 8,400, or 15% below the value at the same time on Monday.
Bitcoin is losing 12 thousand dollars relative to the peaks – a record value in the history of trading. The capitalization of the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, which broke through the $ 1 trillion bar last week, dropped to $ 871 billion.
The total size of the crypto market shrank by $ 400 billion in two days and now stands at $ 1.351 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap.
Attempts to rebound rates, made on Monday evening, did not last even a few hours. The sale entered a new round after the head of the US Treasury, Janet Yellen, sharply criticized bitcoin.
Calling Bitcoin “an extremely inefficient means of payment,” requiring “gigantic” energy costs to conduct transactions, Yellen promised that the digital dollar that the US Federal Reserve is preparing will be “faster, safer and cheaper.”
She, however, added that on the way of this project there are “many issues to be resolved.” These include the fight against money laundering and the potential effect on the banking system that operates with traditional dollars.
The overheated market found in Yellen’s statements a reason to continue the massive liquidation of positions. The first to join the sale were “whales” – large cryptocurrency holders.
By CryptoQuant data, shortly before the first wave of the collapse of prices, they placed on exchanges, primarily Gemini, about 20 thousand bitcoins, the market value of which at that time reached $ 1 billion.
For the same amount – $ 1 billion – positions in bitcoin futures were closed.
The total amount of long positions in Bitcoin-related instruments exceeded $ 3.5 billion and became a record in history.
Following bitcoin, shares of Tesla collapsed, investing $ 1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from the cache reserves in the accounts.
The company’s shares fell 8.6% in New York trading on Monday. Elon Musk lost $ 15 billion and lost the first line in the list of the richest people in the world. Now his fortune is estimated at $ 183 billion.
