{"id":584835,"date":"2025-03-01T07:33:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T05:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=584835"},"modified":"2025-03-01T07:41:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T05:41:24","slug":"bitcoin-tumbles-from-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/584835-bitcoin-tumbles-from-record.html","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin tumbles from record"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A week-long rout in Bitcoin deepened amid the recent broader retreat from risky assets in the wake of US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff threats and crypto sector turmoil, marking a dramatic reality check for one of the most popular Trump trades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 7.2% to $78,226 (R1.46 million) at one point Friday, bringing its decline from the all-time high reached less than six weeks ago to 28%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin later pared the loss, and ended up trading little changed on the day. Bitcoin fell around 18% in February, the biggest monthly drop since June 2022. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome large players just said at the end of the day, \u2018you know what, I\u2019m just going to throw in the towel,\u201d said Zaheer Ebtikar, co-founder of crypto fund Split Capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what we saw this past week. There was definitely a lot of selling more than usual, so it\u2019s hard to pinpoint one specific exchange or place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s drop in Bitcoin has taken it to technical levels that many traders watch for signs that the selloff may have gone too far, inspiring dip buyers to step in and at least pause the declines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin has fallen below its 200-day moving average, a closely watched indicator of the long-term trend, for the first time since October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its 14-day relative strength index, a gauge of price momentum, this week fell below a level indicating the asset is considered oversold for the first time since September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said Thursday that\u00a025% tariffs<\/a>\u00a0on Canada and Mexico would come into force from March 4, undermining hopes he might reverse course after a previous delay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said Chinese imports would face a further 10% levy, prompting\u00a0officials in Beijing<\/a>\u00a0to promise \u201call necessary measures\u201d in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus on trade tensions had led to a\u00a0broad risk-off decline<\/a>\u00a0across markets on Friday, pushing down almost all Asian stock markets and fueling declines in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But cryptocurrencies \u2014 which are deeply exposed to shifts in risk appetite \u2014 were among the worst hit. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump Trade Woes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The selloff underscores a swift change of fortunes for what was previously one of the most popular Trump trades in global markets: buying Bitcoin on the expectation that the president\u2019s crypto-friendly approach would lead to a broad rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That worked for a while. Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $109,241 on Jan. 20, the day of Trump\u2019s inauguration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But cryptocurrencies have recently come under pressure amid worries that Trump\u2019s pugilistic approach to global trade could lead to broad pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the macro environment, it\u2019s not surprising to see we are where we are,\u201d said Stefan von Haenisch, director of over-the-counter trading in Asia Pacific at crypto custody firm Bitgo Inc. Traders are still waiting for Trump to come up with concrete steps for the sector including a Bitcoin stockpile, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors are now being forced to consider quite how far the world\u2019s biggest cryptocurrency can fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is support for the coin around $70,000, said Ruslan Lienkha, chief of markets at crypto platform YouHodler, pointing to technical analysis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said investors shouldn\u2019t assume the rout in Bitcoin will get that bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will only see this level if negative sentiment dominates the equity markets,\u201c said Lienkha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bearish sentiment has also hit spot US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Investors have pulled a record $3.3 billion from US spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in February, poised for the biggest monthly exodus since they debuted, as investors sought refuge in safer assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and persistent inflation concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has already made a few changes that have pleased crypto bulls, including putting crypto advocates in key positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which embarked on a yearslong crackdown under former Chair Gary Gensler, has also\u00a0closed\u00a0investigations into several crypto outfits in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u00a0has said\u00a0he wants to make the US \u201cthe crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The original cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 7.2% to $78,226 (R1.46 million) at one point Friday, bringing its decline from the all-time high reached less than six weeks ago to 28%. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":534797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[187,61488,43378,35045],"class_list":["post-584835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-price","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584840,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584835\/revisions\/584840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}