Ever felt the ground shift beneath you? Bitcoin just did, and it’s got the crypto world buzzing!
Late Thursday, Bitcoin took a nosedive, shedding as much as 9% of its value, settling just over the $26,000 mark. You might’ve felt that sting if you were checking your crypto wallet around that time. By the end of this wild ride, Bitcoin was trading at $26,593.68, reflecting a drop of over 8%, as per Coin Metrics data.
Now, here’s where things get spicy. The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell a few hours before this drop. They reported that SpaceX, under the leadership of the ever-controversial Elon Musk, wrote down the value of its Bitcoin holdings by a whopping $373 million in 2022 and 2021. And guess what? They sold off the virtual currency. Talk about a plot twist!
Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at Bitwise Asset Management, described this as one of the “most brutal minute-by-minute selloffs” in Bitcoin’s history. The speculation? It’s all Elon Musk and SpaceX’s doing. According to Rasmussen, this massive decline is “short-sighted and largely retail-driven.”
But wait, there’s a backstory. In 2022, Tesla, another company under Musk’s vast empire, announced that it sold about 75% of its Bitcoin holdings after initially investing $1.5 billion in the flagship cryptocurrency. Musk, the billionaire tech mogul, has always been a vocal supporter of crypto. Studies have shown that his mere mention of certain altcoins on social media platforms can send their prices skyrocketing. Back in 2021, during “The B-Word” conference, Musk mentioned, “If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump.”
Before this dramatic tumble, Bitcoin was already feeling the heat, especially after the Federal Reserve released its July policy meeting minutes. On that Thursday, Bitcoin hit its lowest in almost two months.
So, what’s the takeaway? The crypto world is unpredictable, and sometimes, it takes a bit of news to send it spiraling. Always be ready for a wild ride!
