Wednesday saw a further decline in the price of bitcoin, which dropped below $19,000 for the first time since June. Since a slight increase in the middle of August, Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency by market size, has been on a very steady slide. But the decline below $19,000 on Wednesday morning represents a new low since the cryptocurrency saw a significant decrease in June. Bitcoin has lost roughly 5% this week and nearly 19% over the past 30 days. Ether, likewise, keeps stumbling along. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell to $1,500 on Tuesday, marking its lowest level since July.
After experiencing a minor uptick in August, ether has dropped by around 8% in the last two weeks. Those increases appeared to be a result of Ethereum’s continuing development leading up to its merging later this month, a software change from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake transaction validation. The question of whether Ether will regain that momentum when the integration is finished arises because it is evident that it has lost it. The market cap of all cryptocurrencies fell below $1 trillion as a result of the decline in those two cryptocurrencies.
Continued decline; Given that the market is still looking for support, the declines must worry cryptocurrency investors. The collapse of the Terra stablecoin and the insolvencies of crypto lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital were obvious drivers for falls earlier this year. On Wednesday, it was rumored that Voyager would soon be auctioned. The cause of more recent reductions, however, is less obvious. Given how closely cryptocurrency tracks stock markets around the world, one factor could be its volatility. Just last November, Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies reached record highs, with Bitcoin even flirting with the $68,000 mark.
