The wind of panic raging in the cryptocurrency market has strengthened this weekend.
Badly treated for months, bitcoin hit its lowest level in 18 months on Saturday, falling to 18,732 dollars, below the symbolic bar of 20,000 dollars.
While peaking at $68,000 in the fall of 2021, the first of the cryptoassets lost more than 72% of its value in less than a year.
Proof that the entire ecosystem is in turmoil, the main cryptocurrencies followed, as usual, bitcoin in its fall.
On Saturday, ether, the second market currency, thus posted a decline of around 10%.
The total capitalization of the crypto market has thus fallen back below 900 billion dollars, divided by more than three since its high of last November.
To discover
Find all the results of the legislative elections
Taxes 2022: all about your tax return
In terms of heritage, bitcoin raises many questions
After a good period during the pandemic, cryptocurrencies, known for their high volatility, have fallen sharply in recent weeks, suffering from lower investor appetite for risk.
Like the traditional markets, the cryptocurrency market paradoxically fears overly aggressive measures by central banks to regulate inflation.
Read also
“You have to have a strong heart”: savers shaken by the fall of Bitcoin
The sector must also deal with the fall of various protocols (basic rules establishing the structure of the blockchain) and the setbacks of exchange platforms, such as Celsius, which suspended the possibility of its 1.7 million customers to withdraw or to transfer their cryptocurrencies.
Despite this strong turbulence,
“the sector will not disappear”,
assured Friday the boss of Binance, the main crypto-asset exchange platform in the world, on the sidelines of the VivaTech show in Paris.
The current crisis
“creates concerns, but we expected it, it is not unusual”,
assured Changpeng Zhao, one of the most listened to voices in this environment.
“Financial markets go up and down.
If you go public, you can't expect it to go up indefinitely,”
explained the 44-year-old entrepreneur.
Not enough to reassure investors...
