Bitcoin Loses Half Its Value Since Peaking Six Months Ago And Is Still Plummeting
The most resilient of all the cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, is having a very bad year so far after peaking last November at around $67,000. Now instead of talking about whether it can reach $100,000, Bitcoin investors and observers are left wondering how much further it can tumble after losing more than half its value since then—it's fallen to below $33,000 this weekend.
At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is down to $32,850.73. That's down from over $43,000 just one month ago, and right around that mark just over two weeks ago. The current sharp decline started late in the day last Thursday, May 5, and continued through the weekend and into this morning. Bitcoin is down around 5 percent in the past 24 hours.
This is part of the nature with cryptocurrency—wild swings in valuation are not uncommon, especially over time. And this is not the first time Bitcoin has seen a steep decline in value. It approached the $63,000 mark in April of last year before falling to below $30,000 three months later in mid-July, the recovered for the aforementioned peak in November 2021.
Source: Coindesk
As it stands, Bitcoin is trading at its lowest value since July 2021. Given that Bitcoin has rebounded from such steep drops in the past, some investors might view this as an opportune time to get into Bitcoin, or add more of it to their portfolios. However, there's obviously no guarantee when it comes to investing, be it in cryptocurrency or stocks or whatever, and there's no way of knowing if Bitcoin will see another big rebound or continue to decline.
It's been a rough year for several cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin. Ethereum, for example, is down around 6 percent in the past 24 hours to $2,392.88. And like Bitcoin, that's a drop of than half from its peak value of over $4,700, also from last November. Just a few weeks ago, Ethereum was trading for over $3,500.
So what's going on? It's been observed that crypto's swings correlate with indexes like NASDAQ, both of which are down around 21-22 percent in 2022. In addition, there haven't been a lot of big announcements in crytpo this year, whereas in 2021 several notable firms (like Tesla) announced they would be accepting Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
If you're rooting for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, there are reasons to be optimistic that another rebound is in the wings. The emerging metaverse and NFTs are both driving factors in crytpo's sustainability, and Bitcoin in particular continues to attract some big names like Intel, which has begun shipping out its own mining accelerators.
