Bitcoin price suddenly collapses, wiping billions off people’s investments

Anthony Cuthbertson
Tuesday 07 September 2021 13:45 EDT
Comments
Related video: How is Bitcoin fueling climate change?

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Bitcoin has suffered a massive price crash amid difficulties with El Salvador’s rollout of a new law making the cryptocurrency legal tender.

The price fell from above $52,500 to below $44,000 on Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap.

It has since recovered slightly and is trading back above $46,000, at the time of writing.

Follow all the latest crypto market updates with The Independent’s live blog

Several other leading cryptocurrencies also suffered heavy losses, including ethereum (ether), cardano (ada) and binance coin.

“Horrible chart damage being done in BTC and the rest of the crypto market, tweeted crypto analyst and author Glen Goodman.

“Bitcoin just bounced cleanly off the previous resistance line. Is this a retest of that line or the start of something much worse?”

(CoinMarketCap)

The price correction has wiped hundreds of billions from the overall market, which was worth more than $2.35 trillion at the start of the day.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase experienced issues as people rushed to their portfolios to either cash out or buy the dip.

The company said it was “aware transactions are currently delayed or cancelled at elevated rates and our apps may be experiencing errors”.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in