Bitcoin stabilized on Tuesday after primarily falling to a new 18-month low as major crypto lender Celsius Network’s freezing of withdrawals and the prospect of sharp U.S. interest rate rises shook the instable asset class.
Bitcoin grazed its way to encouraging territory after falling as much as 7.3% to $20,816, its lowest since Dec. 2020. It was last up 1.1%.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 15% on Monday, its major one-day drop since March 2020. Bitcoin is down about half this year and over 20% since Friday alone. Meanwhile its record high of $69,000 in November, it has drooping nearly 70%.
New Jersey-based Celsius said in a blog post on Monday, citing dangerous market conditions, that it had frozen withdrawals and transfers between accounts, “to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets”.
Lacking the value of Crypto Market:
The move, collective with prospects of sharper U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate climbs after high U.S. inflation data last week, lacking the value of the crypto market under $1 trillion for the first time since Jan. 2021.
“With the broader risk sentiment firmly negative the sellers have had it all their own way for a few days,” said Richard Usher at crypto firm BCB Group. “It will take a shift in the overall risk sentiment to turn the price around significantly.”
Smaller cryptocurrencies, which lean towards to track bitcoin’s movements, also improved sharp losses. No. 2 token ether was up 2.4% after losing as much as 10% to $1,075, a fresh 15-month low.
Celsius, which has around $11.8 billion in assets, offers interest-bearing products to customers who deposit crypto at its policy. It then imparts out coins to earn a return.
“The market is now panicking about the impact and contagion if Celsius becomes insolvent,” wrote Singapore fund manager QCP Capital in a message.
Cryptocurrency investors were previously upset by the collapse of the terraUSD and luna tokens in May.
Which was soon followed by Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, briefly breaking its 1:1 peg with the dollar.
And higher U.S. inflation has not only roiled cryptocurrencies additional.
But also other asset classes as investors discarded risky assets, with the S&P index falling for four days straight.
Crypto-linked stocks have been principally hard hit. Bitcoin-buying software firm MicroStrategy tumbled 25.2%, while crypto exchange Coinbase Global lost 11.4%.