Photo: Reuters
Bitcoin has shed a fifth of its value today (Saturday) as a combination of profit-taking and macro-economic concerns triggered nearly a billion-dollar worth of selling across cryptocurrencies.
Reuters reports that Bitcoin was 12% down at 0920 GMT at $47,495. It fell as low as $41,967.5 during the session, taking total losses for the day to 22%.
The broad selloff in cryptocurrencies also saw ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, plunge more than 10%.
Based on cryptocurrency data platform Coingecko, the market capitalisation of the 11,392 coins it tracks dropped nearly 15% to $2.34 trillion. That value had briefly crossed $3 trillion last month when bitcoin hit a record $69,000.
The plunge follows a volatile week for financial markets. Global equities and benchmark US bond yields tumbled on Friday after data showed US job growth slowed in November and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus kept investors on edge.
The selloff also comes ahead of testimony by executives from eight major cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase Global, CFO Alesia Haas and FTX Trading CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, before the US House Financial Services Committee on December 8.