Cryptocurrencies kicked off a new week with deep losses, extending weekend selling following surprisingly high U.S. inflation data and troubles for a major cryptocurrency exchange.
Bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.96% has slumped around 17% over the past 24 hours, trading as low as $20,889 on Monday night, according to Coindesk data, a level not seen since December 2020. Bitcoin is down more than 60% from its November 2021 high.
Ethereum ETHUSD, -1.86% fell more than 16% to around $1,099, also hovering at its lowest since December 2020. Meme coin Dogecoin DOGEUSD, -2.11% lost 16%.
Investors were reassessing exposure to perceived riskier assets in the wake of U.S. data showing persistent inflation pressures in May, and the fastest pace of increase since December 1981. Crypto prices tend to be tightly correlated with the performance of U.S. stocks, and equity futures ES00, -0.17% pointed to a bruising followup to Friday’s sharp losses.
Read: Bitcoin’s ‘decoupling’ from stocks? Here’s why it will, or will not happen
Also not helping sentiment were hints of industry panic. Crypto lending platform Celsius announced it was pausing all withdrawals and transfers amid “extreme market conditions,” as its CEL digital token plunged 50%. And shares of technology services group MicroStrategy MSTR, +3.75% slumped on worries a margin call may force it to sell bitcoins.
