Bitcoin Drops Below $19,000 for the First Time Since July, Ether Turns Bearish Too

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, has begun a steep drop, one that sees its value drop further along the lines of its June 2022 lows as investors burrow deeper into risk-off mode. The value of Bitcoin has witnessed a considerable dip of over 5 percent in the last 24 hours with its price now hovering below the $19,000 (roughly Rs. 15.20 lakh) mark across global exchanges while Indian exchanges like CoinSwitch and CoinDCX value BTC at $20,582 (roughly Rs. 16.50 lakh), 1.5 percent lower than yesterday.

On global exchanges like CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, and Binance, the price of Bitcoin stands at $18,704 (roughly Rs. 14.90 lakh) while CoinGecko data shows that BTC's value is currently 5.3 percent lower than where it stood last Wednesday.

Heading into the week of the much-awaited 'Merge', Ether has surprisingly looked bearish following BTC's price trend despite the Bellatrix upgrade.

As things stand, Ether is valued at $1,647 (roughly Rs. 1.30 lakh) across Indian exchanges while values on global exchanges see the crypto's value at $1,508 (roughly Rs. 1.20 lakh), where the cryptocurrency's value has lost a heavy 8.16 percent over the past 24 hours.

Ether's showing over the latter stages of last week sees the cryptocurrency's value again move a lot higher than where it was last week. CoinGecko data suggests that the world's second-largest crypto asset has moved up 9.5 percent in value week-on-week.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that most major altcoins had a bad day of steep losses over the past 24 hours. The global crypto market capitalisation also witnessed an eye-watering 5.43 percent dip through late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Polkadot, Uniswap, Cosmos, Solana, Monero, Cosmos, Avalanche, Cardano, Polygon, TRON, and BNB — all saw heavy drops over the last 24 hours.

Memecoins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin also followed most altcoins with big drops in value. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.06 (roughly Rs. 4.68) after losing 7.69 percent in value over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000012 (roughly Rs. 0.000960), down 5.37 percent over the past day.

A lot of the current crypto downturn can be attributed to macroeconomic factors. Bitcoin price fell as the dollar showed renewed strength. The dollar jumped to a 20-year high while the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index experienced record highs. Similarly, the US 10-year treasury bills have shown strength in anticipation of the Fed's quantitative tightening.

The traditional market fell as well in response to the dollar's strength. The S&P 500 fell by 0.4 percent while the NASDAQ 100 fell by 0.7 percent. Gold prices also fell in response to the dollar's strength.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.