Daily Times

Cryptocurrencies plunged on Monday, with bitcoin dropping more than 12% to a one-week low as rising US bond yields lifted the dollar broadly and hurt other safe assets that pay no income.

Bitcoin fell as far as $33,447, its lowest since Jan. 6. Ethereum which often moves in tandem with bitcoin, fell as much as 20% to a one-week low of $1,007.51.

The falls are much larger than the 1% drop that sent gold prices to a one-month low, but reflect a wider dollar bounce against major fiat currencies as the prospect of higher US interest rates tempers popular bets against the dollar.

“It’s just another way of expressing a dollar view,” said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne. “I know it’s a macro play as well, but I do think that gold and bitcoin have been used in a fairly similar capacity,” he said. Losses pared a little by lunchtime in Asia to put bitcoin at $35,192 – about 16% below a record peak of $42,000 which the world’s most popular cryptocurrency hit last week. If sustained, the drop would be the third straight session of losses since that high, which represented an almost 1,000% gain from a one-year low of $3,850 that bitcoin hit last March.