Bitcoin, the flagship currency, remained in a deep red on the last day of June amid fear of inflation and recession in the global economy. The largest cryptocurrency fell more than 56 percent in 2022 so far, which is almost less than half its last year's November peak.
The coin prices tumbled again on Thursday, with the digital token sliding below $19,000. Bitcoin was trading at $18,994 down nearly 5.42 percent at 17:30 pm (IST), according to CoinDesk data.
On the other side, Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, which is linked to the Ethereum blockchain, also crashed 9.16 percent to $1,017.37.
The global cryptocurrency market cap declined 4.76 percent to $853.49 billion in the last 24 hours. However, the total cryptocurrency trading volume increased over 5.71 percent to $65.20 billion. Out of a total market cap, bitcoin's dominance is currency 42.67 percent, an increase of 0.11 percent over the day, as per CoinMarketCap data.
“If Bitcoin is Jack, altcoins are Jill – and both came sliding down the hill. Bitcoin prices have slid more than 50% from the ATHs and other major cryptos like ETH have suffered almost 70% slide in recent times. A peculiar trend in the cryptocurrencies is that the momentum is led by Bitcoin and the price movements of Altcoins are directionally correlated to the price action of Bitcoin. Think of Bitcoin as an "influencer" of the crypto prices” Ajoy Pathak is a Blockchain Evangelist with CryptoWire.
Bitcoin prices have a seasonal tendency which can be spotted as a quadrennial event and is linked to its Halving. In that respect, we should see a deja vu by the next Halving event to occur in 2024. So, best guess, crypto winter for two more years followed by a rally in Bitcoin, and hence, crypto prices, he added.
Given how closely it has been trading with US stocks, Bitcoin could reach as high as $28,000 by the end of the year, according to an analysis from Deutsche Bank, as reported by Bloomberg.
Gaurav Mehta, Founder of Catax app said “Price reflects the sentiment and utility. In the case of cryptocurrencies, it has been driven by sentiments, as the utility of cryptocurrencies is still contested and requires global regulation. Since the beginning of this year, view of cryptocurrency as “store of value," "hedge," and "digital gold," all of which turned out to be marketing ploys. Geopolitical instability, market crash, and other events have not had a good effect on the price of crypto, thus it is safe to assume that the market differs from the bold claims of crypto evangelists.”
While Bitcoin mining has been tremendously profitable in recent years, many miners actually sell more Bitcoin than they obtained through mining and the trend is going to continue further adding to pressure, he added.
Meanwhile, according to a recent study by investing firm Alto, over 39 percent of millennials own cryptocurrencies, which is higher than the percentage of millennials who own mutual funds, and almost equivalent to the percentage of millennials who own individual equities.