In the last few hours at press time, there has been a massive dump of the largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin. The cryptocurrency market has been selling off for some days now and this is the lowest BTC has seen since July 2021. The bears have taken over the market and the bulls have been at a loss.
What could actually be the cause of this dump? Will Bitcoin still get to $100k as some financial analysts have predicted? Should we sell off our bag or buy more BTC?
The world’s number one cryptocurrency is currently trading below $30,000 as of the time of this writing. This is the lowest Bitcoin has seen in the last 11 months.
Bitcoin made its all-time high of above $69,000 on April 14, 2021. The Bitcoin price live has a market capitalization that Is above $700 billion in 2021. It has a maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoin coins and a total supply of 19.04 million BTC.
(Source: Gate.io https://www.gate.io/, a global top 10 cryptocurrency exchange).
Bitcoin accounts for about a third of the total market valuation. There have been over 300 million liquidations within the last 24 hours and the whole crypto market is now worth about $1.5 trillion.
What does this crash mean for traders and investors in the crypto market? Other altcoins have joined in this plunge and BTC has fallen by over 45% since last year.
What May Be The Cause Of The Bitcoin Crash?
There is the law of cause and effect, so investors and traders need to know what may likely be the factors that have affected the total cryptocurrency market. There are several reasons why the bears have taken over the market and these include:
The announcement made by the Federal Reserve to increase the interest rate by half a percent (0.50%) on Wednesday after the Fed’s meeting: On Wednesday, the United States bank policy-making Federal Open Market Committee voted in one accord to increase the standard rate by a half percentage point and will begin to start allowing it’s holding in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to roll off in June.
After Fed Chair Jerome Powell said a 75-basis point increase is not something the committee is actively considering, risky assets increased. This is the biggest increase in the rate since 2000. Should we expect a further increase in the future up to 0.75%?
The role of the Fed is to ensure the economy is stable and one of the ways they can do that is by lowering or increasing the interest rate. Raising the interest rate will make it very difficult to borrow, spending will decrease and this will automatically slow down inflation without triggering a recession. The goal of the Fed is to ensure a moderate economic slowdown following a period of growth, so as the interest rate is raised, it curbs inflation.
Selling off bonds to reduce the Fed’s $9 trillion balance sheet, so there is less money circulation in the economy which will help to control the rate of inflation and spending. This has a negative effect on the demand for high-risk assets such as Cryptocurrencies. What is the fate of the Bitcoin price in the midst of all these? Is it a good time to exchange? Should investors hold?