The world’s oldest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, continued to fall as big investors sold off their positions. The crypto asset logged a 24-hour high and a low of $32,939.54 and $30,875.63, respectively. However, it was trading higher by 0.52% at $31,768 at around 12.45 pm (IST) on Wednesday, as per data available with crypto exchange WazirX.
Also Read | How India has become an unequal republic
“Bitcoin prices have slipped by 4% after hitting the $35,000 level on Monday. The price of the most popular cryptocurrency fell to $30,875 and then recovered to above $32,000. Experts claim that many holders and whales have sold off their positions. On the other side, DeFi is making some noise as the amount of bitcoin locked into DeFi is at the highest for the month. Close to 42,604 bitcoins are locked into DeFi. On the institutional side, Marathon, a crypto mining company has invested $150 million into bitcoin and aims to be the largest miner in the world,” said Ashish Singhal, chief executive officer and co-founder, CoinSwitch Kuber, cryptocurrency investment platform.
DeFi or decentralized finance is an experimental form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediaries.
Meanwhile, the second-biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, ethereum, was trading marginally in the green at $1,310.09. However, other major cryptocurrencies such as stellar, ripple and tether were trading in the red.
Cryptocurrencies have come under pressure in recent times despite interest from big financial institutions such as BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
In a recent survey conducted by financial services major Deutsche Bank, respondents listed bitcoin to be in the ‘extreme bubble’ zone.
The survey was conducted among 627 global market professionals during 13-15 January. The market professionals were asked to identify areas of bubbles in the global markets on a scale of 0-10, with 10 meaning ‘extreme bubble’.
Bitcoin got a score of 8.7, while US technology stocks came in second with a score of 7.9, followed by 6.2 for European government bonds.