Bitcoin price crash has left 40per of investments under water
Categories: Crypto News US
If you’ve ever bought Bitcoin, there’s a 40% chance your investment is currently under water.Both traditional and crypto markets have been in free fall the past several days, hurtling into bear territory, where assets trade at 20% or more below their last peak. The benchmark S&P 500 is down 15% this year, while half the stocks on the Nasdaq index are down over 50% from their highs.Bitcoin has dived further. The popular cryptocurrency is down roughly 55% from its November peak of $69,000, currently trading at below $32,000. For a lot of Bitcoin holders, that means their portfolio has dipped into the red. According to research from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, only 60% of Bitcoin investments remained profitable when the cryptocurrency was priced at $33,600 per unit. The remaining 40% of investments sank below water. As Bitcoin's price has tanked even lower, now floating between $31,000 and $32,000, an even larger share of investments are in the red.According to Glassnode, Bitcoin’s sudden price plunge is being driven by both “shrimps and whales” racing to get money out of the market, meaning investors with both small and large stakes in the crypto are all seeking to avoid the crash. Glassnode says there has been “a high degree of urgency” associated with Bitcoin transactions this past week. The total value of transaction fees has shot above the high set during the last crypto crash in December.But not everyone is selling. Some investors are still “hodling” their stake—an insider term for holding on to a position—or even strengthening their position by buying the dip and rushing into the weaker market. On Monday, the president of El Salvador announced his government had purchased 500 Bitcoin, which the president made legal tender in September last year.But Glassnode says smaller investors—those holding less than 1 Bitcoin—have been the “strongest accumulators” of cryptocurrency during the selloff, but even that cohort of retail-level diehards is buying at a slower rate than before.