Bitcoin Slides Below USD 33K, Analysts Look for Possible Bottom
Bitcoin (BTC) crashed to its lowest level since last summer as the number one cryptocurrency hit the USD 32,000 level. The Monday crash came as the broader crypto market sold off over the weekend, led by falling stock prices and fears that terraUSD (UST) could lose its dollar peg. Meanwhile, several analysts pointed to possible bottoms in the sub-30k area.
As of Monday at 13:40 UTC, BTC was down almost 5% over the past 24 hours and 14% over the past 7 days to USD 32,974. Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH) – the second-largest cryptocurrency, was down by almost 6% for the day and 15% for the week to USD 2,410.
The fall in the bitcoin price means that the USD 33,000 level, which worked as support for BTC in late January, has broken. As a result, BTC on Monday saw its lowest price since July last year, when the price touched just below the key USD 30,000 level.
From its all-time high of USD 69,000 seen on November 10 last year, BTC is now down by about 52%.
BTC/USD year-to-date
The sell-off in crypto came as sentiment among investors in the traditional market also turned bearish before the weekend, with the broad S&P 500 stock index losing close to 3% on Thursday and a further 0.6% on Friday. On Monday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.55% as selling continued.
Meanwhile, selling in bitcoin may also have been exacerbated by fears over the fate of the UST stablecoin on Terra (LUNA). The coin, which is backed partially by BTC, temporarily lost its peg over the weekend. The incident led the Luna Foundation Guard to loan out BTC to a trading firm in an effort to stabilize the peg.
According to data from Coinglass, liquidations of leveraged long positions in the bitcoin market have risen significantly as the sell-off intensified in
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