Bitcoin Crash: Cryptocurrency falls 5.6% to $34,448, Ether drops 8.4%

New Delhi: Bitcoin dropped 5.6% to $34,448.94 at 18:10 GMT on Saturday, losing 1,878.27 from its previous close. Bitcoin, the world`s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 1.8% from the year’s low of $34,000 on Jan. 22.

Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, dropped 8.4% to $2,352.72 on Saturday, losing $189.64 from its previous close.

Bitcoin is now about half its $69,000 peak in November. It was last at $35,049, after falling as low as $34,000 and following a steep fall on Friday.

The currency has had wild price swings and has been hit as risk appetite has fallen on inflation fears and anticipation of a more aggressive pace of interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Other risk assets have fallen with stocks falling on Friday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded their biggest weekly percentage drops since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

In a research note on Friday, Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at OANDA, said bitcoin was falling as "crypto traders de-risk portfolios following the bloodbath in stocks" and in advance of next week`s Federal Reserve policy meeting. Also Read: LIC Policy: Get Rs 20 lakh on maturity by investing Rs 252 per day, here’s how

"Bitcoin remains in the danger zone and if $37,000 breaks, there is not much support until the $30,000 level," Moya wrote on Friday. Also Read: Republic Day Sale: AIWA introduces offers on personal audio, luxury acoustics range

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