Bitcoin slips to $54,413 as bears grip cryptos tightly

Author: Monitoring Desk

The cryptocurrency market witnessed a bearish trend on Sunday, with the market capitalisation shedding 2 percent to reach $2.58 trillion as of 1505 hours GMT.

The largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin slipped 0.61 percent to reach $54,413. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of the biggest cryptocurrency has reached 1.03 trillion.

Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, went down by 0.72 percent to reach $4,089. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of ETH has reached $480.4 billion. Similarly, XRP price tanked by 3.03 percent to reach $0.926. The market capitalisation of XRP stands at $92.6 billion after this decrease.

Likewise, Cardano (ADA) price went down by 3.74 percent to reach $1.51. Its market capitalisation has reached $49.4 billion with this decrease.

Following suit, Dogecoin (DOGE) price decreased by 3.21 percent to reach $0.200. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of DOGE has reached $26.4 billion.

Bitcoin has entered bear-market territory, having dropped 20pc from it’s all-time high of around $69,000, as fears over the new Omicron coronavirus variant threw global investors into a panic. The price of bitcoin fell below $54,000, marking a daily drop of nearly 8pc. The slide to $54,321 brought it to its lowest level since early October.

The major drop is attributed to a new, heavily mutated variant of the coronavirus. The new strain, named Omicron, was first reported to the World Health Organization on Wednesday.

Mounting concerns over the new variant promptly evoked strict travel bans across the globe, with flights from South Africa and several neighbouring states being barred by a growing number of nations.

The news also triggered selloffs in riskier assets, with stock markets around the world registering a decline earlier this week. US Treasury yields moved sharply lower, while bond yields moved inversely to prices. European stocks endured their worst session in more than a year, while US stock futures were sharply down.