Bitcoin falls by more than 10% in 24 hours and falls below $60,000

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, bitcoin fell by more than 12% amid tension in the financial markets.

New period of high volatility for bitcoin. On Wednesday, May 1, the queen of cryptocurrencies returned below the symbolic threshold of $60,000, going from $64,562 on April 30 (its highest point) to $56,670 on May 1 (its lowest point), i.e. -12, 2% in 24 hours.

This Thursday, bitcoin recovered slightly, trading at $57,700 on Coinmarketcap, but the asset is still down more than 10% over a week. The stock remains 21% lower than its historic record reached on March 14, at $73,750. Bitcoin has dragged the cryptocurrency market into the red, with ether losing more than 8% over a week, while altcoins like solana and dogecoin are suffering even more, losing 11% and 16% respectively over the same period.

Bitcoin fell in the wake of announcements from the American Federal Reserve (Fed) this Wednesday, which spoke of the “lack of progress” on inflation by leaving its rates unchanged at their highest. Bitcoin also reacted downward to the timid debut of spot bitcoin ETFs launched this Tuesday in Hong Kong, which wants to become an international crypto hub. “The first day of trading of the funds only recorded around $10 million in inflows,” James Harte of Tickmill told AFP.

The price of bitcoin was particularly boosted by the arrival of the first spot bitcoin ETFs on the market in the United States on January 10, gaining 40% since the start of the year. The American stock market watchdog (the SEC) has authorized 11 spot bitcoin ETFs, offered in particular by asset managers like Blackrock and Fidelity. Before this date, the SEC only approved Bitcoin futures ETF (this was the case since 2021) but not spot (spot) bitcoin ETFs, considering that futures are more difficult to manipulate because the market is based on the futures prices of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).

An ETF (or Exchange Traded Funds) is an index fund trading on a stock exchange which follows the evolution of a stock index (or one or more financial or physical assets, such as gold) by replicating the increase as well as the drop in the price of this index (or these assets).