What happened this week to cause a crypto crash?

Bitcoin continued to plunge on Saturday following Friday’s cryptocurrency market crash, dropping 5.6 per cent to sit below the $35,000 (€30,851) threshold for the first time since August.

The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency slipped to $34,448.94 (€30,365.53) at 7.10 PM CET on Saturday, losing $1,878.27 (€1,655.63) from its previous close.

Cryptocurrencies across the board continued to slide in value, with indexes a sea of red still on Sunday.

The price of Bitcoin was, however, up 1.8 per cent from the year’s low of $34,000 (€29,970). It’s also plummeted over 40 per cent since its historic high in November when its value reached $68,992 (€60,895.79).

At midday CET on Sunday, it was still down over 17 per cent week-on-week but had recovered 1 per cent to $35,678.42 (€31,449.28), according to coinmarketgap.com.

Ether, the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain network, also dropped 8.4 per cent to $2,352.72 (€2,073.84) on Saturday, losing $189.64 (€167.16) from its previous close.

At 12 pm CET on Sunday, it had rallied around 2 per cent to $2,491.81 (€2,196.44) but was still down 25 per cent week-on-week.

The total market cap fell over 11 per cent on Friday to $1.9 trillion (€1.6 trillion), down from an all-time high of $3.1 trillion (€2.7 trillion) in November, according to data from CoinGecko.

What happened this week to cause a crypto crash?
The losses across the crypto market mirrored similar losses in the traditional stock market, with the Nasdaq 100 shedding around 15 per cent on Friday as well. It was the worst week for the tech-heavy Nasdaq since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over $60 billion (€53 billion) in losses.

In particular, the prospect of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve is pushing investors away from riskier assets, including cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin ban: These are the countries where crypto is restricted or illegal
In addition, regulators are increasingly concerned about the place of cryptocurrencies in the economy with concerns there will be a further crackdown on digital currency.

The Spanish market regulator strongly regulated advertising for trading platforms this week, and similar measures are being studied elsewhere in Europe, particularly in the UK.

Elsewhere, the Russian Central Bank on Thursday proposed a ban on mining and use of cryptocurrencies in the country, arguing it posed a threat to Russia’s “financial stability and monetary policy sovereignty”.