As the top digital asset, Bitcoin (BTC) has been registering new peaks in recent months. The crypto trades around $53,000 at the time of this writing, way below its all-time high of $58,300.
Experts in digital currency like former White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge Capital founder, believes the price of Bitcoin will hit the 100,000 level by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, a broad-based sharp sell-off has hit the cryptocurrency landscape, stopping on its tracks a recent bull run propelled by corporate and retail interest alike.
Market pullback
The sell-off was also seemingly sparked by comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said bitcoin was “inefficient” as a method of payment and is highly speculative.
The global bitcoin market has slipped 14% in the last 24 hours, figures from CoinMarketCap.com show. The retreat was led by the world’s most popular crypto, bitcoin, which accounts for 60% of the crypto market in terms of value.
Monday’s sharp correction was not a surprise to some market observers. “The market has not seen a pullback like this since early January,” Coin Metrics data scientist Jon Geenty disclosed in a private message with CoinDesk.
Still on a decent level
Before Monday’s correction, FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried described the crypto market as “hugely over-leveraged” during an interview with The Block.
Most leading cryptos weakened on the day. Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second-largest crypto, retreated 14.7% to $1,600.95. Dogecoin (DOGE), the “joke” crypto that gained popularity in recent weeks courtesy of Elon Musk, dropped 10% to $0.0508.
For this month alone, Bitcoin has soared over 60%, prompting comments from Tesla’s top honcho Elon Musk that the rally is excessive. The digital token notched a new all-time high on Sunday and came close to breaching the $59,000 mark. Bitcoin has climbed more than 400% since the start of October 2020.
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