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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Dan Milmo Global technology editor

Crypto panic as digital assets follow share prices in a downward spiral

Composite image of a bitcoin, imagined as a large gold coin with a printed circuit embedded on its face and a B logo, with the falling trace of a price graph superimposed
Investors used to buy bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, but it has proved to be vulnerable to the wider economic downturn. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

The cryptocurrency market could do with some respite but its convention-breaking nature means there is no hiatus. Trading in digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum runs 24/7, unlike their conventional peers in equities on the New York and London stock exchanges, which at least get the weekend off.

So one torrid week tends to run into another for this most cutting-edge of markets. Bitcoin – the cryptocurrency cornerstone – fell below the key level of $20,000 on Saturday morning, meaning it has dropped 34% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko, which showed that ethereum, the other pillar of the market, had fallen 40% to $994 in the same period. There are fears bitcoin’s fall will trigger more sell-offs, leading to another tumultuous seven days for digital assets.

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