Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Drops Below $64K as US Stock Sell-Off Stalls Crypto Recovery; SOL, LINK Drop 2%-4%
Cryptocurrencies dramatically reversed early gains during the U.S. trading session on Wednesday with bitcoin (BTC) falling below $64,000 as a widespread sell-off in stocks weighed on the digital asset market.
The leading cryptocurrency by market cap fell 2% in an hour, falling to $63,890 after trading above $66,000 earlier in the session. At press time, BTC was trading at $64,000, down 0.5% over the past 24 hours.
Top Altcoins Like Solana (SUN)cardano (ADA) and the Chainlink token (LINK) sold 2%-4% in the same period. The broad cryptocurrency benchmark market CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) fell 1.2% in the last 24 hours, with most constituents in the red.
The move came as major U.S. stock indexes also sold off, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbling 2.7% and the S&P 500 down 1.3%. Megacap tech stocks such as chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), which were the biggest contributors to both benchmarks marching to new all-time highs, have struggled in recent days as investors rotated capital into smaller-cap stocks in anticipation of more accommodative interest rates later this year. Nvidia fell 6.5% on Wednesday, though it is still up 145% year to date.
Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group, said the cryptocurrency rally could stall if the stock market sell-off turns into a deeper correction, but over a longer time frame it could provide a haven for investors fleeing stocks.
“The only concern we have been flagging in recent sessions is our concern about the state of the US equity market and the possibility that we will soon see a major bearish reversal to allow for a healthy correction,” Kruger said in a note on Wednesday.
“But even then, there will be plenty of reasons to want to buy bitcoin as a flight-to-safety asset, and plenty of reasons to want to buy other crypto assets at times when their potential for massive innovation is low,” he added.