NEW YORK/SINGAPORE/LONDON: Bitcoin plunged on Thursday (Feb 5), its decline accelerating amid weakening risk sentiment driven in part by volatility in precious metals and a broad selloff in tech shares.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to a low of US$63,295.74, its weakest level since October 2024, a month before Republican Donald Trump won the US presidential election, having signalled his intention to support crypto on the campaign trail. It was last down 12.6 per cent at US$63,525, on track for its largest one-day fall since November 2022.
Roughly US$1 billion in bitcoin positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGlass.
All told, the global crypto market has lost US$2 trillion in value since hitting a peak of US$4.379 trillion in early October, CoinGecko data showed, with some US$800 billion wiped out in the last month alone.
Bitcoin has already fallen 17 per cent for the week, taking its losses for the year so far to 28 per cent. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation, was down more than 13 per cent at US$1,854 late on Thursday. Ether has fallen 19 per cent this week, with losses of nearly 38 per cent so far this year.
Sentiment on crypto was affected by the latest selling in metals and stocks. Gold and silver, for instance, have become more volatile as a result of leveraged buying and speculative flows. Silver, for one, fell as much as 18 per cent to a low of US$72.21.
In equities, the S&P 500 sank to a seven-week low, while the Nasdaq slid to its lowest in more than two months on Thursday, as the AI theme came under renewed pressure.
“It’s clear the crypto market is now in full capitulation mode,” said Nic Puckrin, investment analyst and co-founder of Coin Bureau. “If previous cycles are anything to go by, this is no longer a short-term correction, but rather a transition from distribution to reset – and these typically take months, not weeks.”
The latest crypto tumble has knocked down shares of companies holding bitcoin and other digital assets, stoking worries that the market turmoil is spreading beyond token prices.