The world over woke up to the unexpected decline in cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as it fell below $27,000.
Euronews reported that the price of Bitcoin was last down nearly nine per cent to $26,848.20 (€25,659) on Thursday, according to data from Coin Metrics.
The sharp drop comes after the US Bureau of Labour Statistics reported consumer prices for April were higher than expected, causing investors to sell off riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the price of Ether shed more than 23 per cent.
The cryptocurrency markets have been under pressure, especially since the start of the week. Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since January on Monday as slumping equity markets continued to hurt cryptocurrencies, which are currently trading in line with so-called riskier assets like tech stocks.
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Bitcoin briefly dropped below the $30,000 (€28,400) level late on Monday, surpassing the January low of $32,951 (€31,361.77). The last time Bitcoin traded below that level was in July 2021.
By Tuesday, it recovered but only slightly to $31,491 (€29,877), according to CoinMarketCap.
Investors are also spooked by Terra. Its stablecoin TerraUSD crashed almost completely at one point this week and lost its $1 peg to the dollar. As of Thursday morning, UST was trading at about 62 cents, far below its $1 peg.
Social media has been greeted with varying reactions, memes and sarcasm too.
Some users of the crypto coin have noticed a dip in recent time but it has not stopped prospective users from diving in.