Bitcoin Drops Under $19K As Investors Turn Shy On Risky Assets

Bitcoin slumped and hit a three-month low of $18,313 early on Monday as investors have globally become averse around risky assets and monetary tightening over last week.

Over the last 24 hours, Bitcoin dropped by over 6 per cent on Monday with its market cap reaching $912 billion. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) also mirrored Bitcoin’s dip, hitting a two-month low of $1,285 - shedding 10 per cent in a day’s time.

Speaking exclusively to BW Businessworld, Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder, Mudrex said, “The current drop is mirroring the broader current drop across all markets. It is primarily because of inflation data over the last week being significantly worse off than what was expected. Markets are pricing much higher in anticipation of Federal rate hike also”.

Ethereum Merge was expected to have a good impact on the market but the inflationary environment has had a greater effect on macros. Global investors are now bracing for further volatility as interest-rate hike is highly expected from the US Federal Reserve to fight inflationary forces.

ETH’s value has dropped much like other cryptocurrencies over the weekend and Monday as cryptocurrency market was mostly in the red.

Many crypto exchanges had suspended deposits and withdrawals of ETH on the leadup to the Merge, anticipating volatility. One of these platforms included Binance. It has resumed with ETH trade few hours ago.