Bitcoin (BTC) fell 5.4% to around $43,000, its lowest level in three weeks.
- The price move appears to be a continuation of last week's trend, when bitcoin fell on concerns that rising U.S. government bond yields could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy sooner rather than later to keep inflation from spiraling out of control. Analysts have said such a move could trigger a selloff in risky assets, including stocks and bitcoin.
- Bitcoin has not received a boost from seemingly positive news in the past week, including Coinbase's march toward a public listing and a report from JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, arguing that investors could allocate 1% of their portfolios to the largest cryptocurrency.
- Bitcoin has fallen 24% in the seven days to Sunday, its worst weekly performance since March 2020, with prices falling on six of the last seven days.
- The latest pullback trims Bitcoin's February gain to 31%. Year to date, the cryptocurrency is up 50%.
- Digital asset markets were down across the board. Ether (ETH) hit a low of $1,305, down about 8%, while Cardano's ADA token - a big winner of the week - dropped 17% from an all-time high of $1.48 and now trades around $1.21, according to CoinDesk 20.
- "This is still a dip buyer's market," Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at digital asset exchange Equos, wrote Sunday. "Profit taking has led to liquidations, which in turn has led to more profit taking, and $41,800 will be the first test" on the downside. "The next level is $38,100," he said.
- "On the upside, a close above $45,000 will change the theme. $48,200 will be the first target to hit, and above $50,000 everyone will forget about last week and clamor for a return to the all-time highs," Blom wrote.
- "The question for BTC in the medium term is whether HODLers can sustain another drawdown and at what point will longs start to feel the pain," cryptocurrency trading firm QCP Capital wrote on the Telegram channel on Sunday.
- CoinDesk's Daniel Kuhn contributed to this report.