Bitcoin slides below $30,000 level for the first time in a month, BFSI News, ET BFSI

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


By Eric Lam

A selloff in Bitcoin accelerated Tuesday, pushing it below $30,000 for the first time in about a month.

The largest digital coin fell as much as 4.1% and was trading at about $29,700 as of 7 a.m. in London. Other virtual currencies also retreated, including second-ranked Ether. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index was down about 4%.

Some traders had viewed $30,000 as a key support that might open the way to more losses if breached. Further big declines from here could rattle the cryptocurrency market and even exacerbate a wider flight from risk assets such as stocks. Global equities are falling due to fears of slowing economic growth and the relentless spread of the delta variant of Covid-19.

“We’re going to need to form another base first before resuming another bull trend,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific with cryptocurrency exchange Luno in Singapore. “We are going to be ranging between $20,000 and $40,000 for the rest of the year.”

Narratives that had propelled Bitcoin to a mid-April record of almost $65,000 are now being questioned. Some had argued the digital asset could act as a hedge against inflation due to its limited supply. But Bitcoin’s 2% advance this year lags behind the S&P 500’s 13% advance.

“Investors who are allocating to crypto know that volatility is going to be part of it,” Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

Bitcoin has been hit by many setbacks of late, including China’s regulatory crackdown — partly over concerns about high energy consumption — and progress in central bank digital-currency projects that could squeeze private coins.

The creator of meme-token Dogecoin recently lambasted crypto as basically a sham, and the appetite for speculation is generally in retreat.

Officials around the world are also intensifying scrutiny of cryptocurrencies. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushed top U.S. financial regulators to accelerate their consideration of new rules to police so-called stablecoins.



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Carl Icahn says may get into cryptocurrencies in a ‘big way’, BFSI News, ET BFSI

[ad_1]

Read More/Less


Activist investor Carl Icahn is interested in getting into cryptocurrency in a “big way,” and may eventually put more than $1 billion into an alternative currency.

While Icahn hasn’t bought any cryptocurrency yet, the billionaire investor said in a Bloomberg TV interview that he studies Bitcoin, Ethereum and the crypto sector as a whole to determine where the opportunities are. Alternative currencies are gaining popularity as a natural manifestation of inflation in the economy, he added.

Any criticism around cryptocurrency having no underlying value is a “little wrong-headed,” Icahn said.

“Well, what’s the value of a dollar? The only value of the dollar is because you can use it to pay taxes,” he said. “I’m looking at the whole business, and how I might get involved in it.”

Icahn also said he believes people are looking at alternative currencies because parts of the equities market are being traded at “ridiculous prices.” He referred not only to those being driven up as so-called meme stocks, but also certain strategies being offered by money managers.

“I don’t think Reddit and Robinhood and those guys are necessarily bad, I think they do serve a purpose,” Icahn said. “Money is funneling back into companies. Some of these companies might be OK, but a number of them, the risk-reward is absurd.”



[ad_2]

CLICK HERE TO APPLY