As the halving approaches, bitcoin continues its tumble

This Wednesday, the queen of cryptocurrencies hit $60,000, losing more than 13% over a week.

A few days before his halving, bitcoin is struggling. This Wednesday, the queen of cryptocurrencies hit $60,000, sending investors into a cold sweat. At 9:30 a.m. this Thursday, bitcoin is trading just above $62,000, losing 4% of its value in one day and 13% over a week. The queen of cryptocurrencies remains 17% below its historic threshold, reached on March 14 at $73,750 on CoinMarketCap. The asset dragged part of the crypto market during the day, notably ether which lost 4% over one day and 17% over a week.

“In the futures market, long liquidations reached approximately $8.4 million and short liquidations totaled $6.02 million,” highlights The Block. Bitcoin’s fall began after Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve (Fed), declared that the American central bank would not quickly reach its 2% inflation target. In this context of economic uncertainty, risky assets like cryptocurrencies are being abandoned by investors.

Bitcoin was already weakened on Saturday April 13, after Iran’s attack on Israel, losing 10% of its value in a few hours. New shocks could also continue between now and Saturday April 20 during the bitcoin halving (read our ‘ALL UNDERSTAND’ on the halving). As a reminder, this event takes place approximately every four years and more precisely every 210,000 blocks validated on the Bitcoin blockchain. This is a halving of the number of bitcoins issued to the market as rewards for miners (who validate transactions on the blockchain).

“Between $50,000 and $60,000”

“There is normally no particular surprise effect when a theme is known very well in advance and the trend in bitcoin prices has already been very bullish for months. We could even consider that a There is a risk of temporary ‘selling the news’,” Alexandre Baradez, head of market analysis at IG France, said in a note.

“Sell the news” refers to the financial adage “buy the rumor, sell the news” (you must buy a stock at the time of the rumor and resell it when the information is confirmed). In this context, “a return to the zone between $50,000 and $60,000 seems possible,” he concludes.