Bitcoin price news – BTC price sends crypto market into ‘extreme fear’

The price of bitcoin (BTC) has taken another trip south of $30,000, though continues to trade in the $28,000-$32,000 range that it has remained within for most of the last week.

Ethereum (ETH) is also perilously close to dipping below the $2,000 level that it has managed to hold so well in recent days.

The period of relative stability may come as a respite for investors and traders, at least considering the recent market turmoil.

The number of bitcoin addresses with a balance of at least 0.01 BTC has passed 10 million for the first time, according to data from Glassnode.

At current exchange rates, that works out to a balance of justover $300, signaling a major milestone for retail investors.

While it serves as a rough guide for seeing bitcoin’s growth, it is not an entirely accurate measure of how far adoption has spread., as some people meay have multiple addresses with this balance.

The price of both bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are hovering precariously above the key levels of $30,000 and $2,000 respectively on Tuesday morning.

The two most valuable cryptocurrencies have dipped below those levels briefly in recent days but have managed to return to this support zone each time. If support fails and they experience a consistent run below these prices, then crypto market analysts fear a bigger sell-off could lead to a more sustained downturn and a longer-term bear market. Alternatively, upward momentum could be built from this level, leading to a broader recovery.

Until either occurs, it remains an uncertain time for the crypto space.

The biggest ever meeting of international delegates to discuss bitcoin is underway in El Salvador, with representatives from 44 countries taking part.

President Nayib Bukele is hosting the event, having overseen El Salvador’s move to become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal form of tender last year. Central African Republic has since followed, and more countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America appear to be at least considering it.

“Bitcoin is good for the world,” President Bukele tweeted, along with an image of the delegation.

Since a near-total capitulation last week, Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency has continued to experience heavy losses at the start of the week,

After losing more than 99 per cent of its value, any further losses won’t mean much to investors at this stage, though another 46 per cent drop over the last 24 hours appears to signal that confidence in the crypto project is yet to return.

Terra (LUNA) still maintains a market cap of close to $1 billion, so it is not yet completely dead, though it has fallen from the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies to outside of the top 200.

The founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has claimed that bitcoin has no future as a payments network due to its energy-intensive proof-of-work system.

Sam Bankman-Fried told the Financial Times that while bitcoin serves a useful function as a store of value, P0W means it is not scalable for use as a currency.

“Things that you’re doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost,” he said. “Proof of stake networks are.”

His comments drew immediate criticism from bitcoin advocates, who noted that the Lightning network was already being used to solve these issues on nationwide scales, like in El Salvador.

“Bitcoin is the future of money,” said MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. “Lightning is the future of payments.”

I’ve been reporting on bitcoin for nearly a decade now, and one thing I’ve noticed is that there is always far more interest in stories when the market is crashing compared to when it is rising.

While some of these readers may be cautious investors checking whether the downturn is the ‘big one’, and therefore time to pull out, the majority of clicks appear to be those indulging in a bit of schadenfreude - at least judging by the comments and memes. (One popular Twitter account dedicated to just this is ‘Crypto Bros Taking Ls’, which has gained nearly half a million followers since joining the platform this time last year.)

You know its a big crash when even non-crypto accounts are getting involved, and the latest downturn has been a feeding frenzy. It has drawn mockery from seemingly the least likely of sources, with even Ryanair - consistently voted among the worst airlines in Which? surveys - having a pop:

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele appears far from being spooked by the latest price crash, instead annoucning that he will be hosting 44 countries to discuss the benefits of bitcoin.

Representatives of Africa’s two biggest economies - Egypt and Nigeria - will be among those attending, with one of the main topics for discussion being that of financial inclusion and banking the unbanked.

You can read the full story here:

to The Independent’s live coverage of bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market.

After crashing as low as $26,350 last week, bitcoin is back above $30,000 - but only just. It is the same price level BTC was able to hold on two previous downturns, though it is too early to say whether this was the bottom of the current cycle.

We’ll be bringing you all the latest news, market analysis and expert price predictions right here.