The price of bitcoin and many of its peers in the cryptocurrency space took a major hit over the weekend. Cryptocurrencies had faced pressure since the middle of April. There were rumours of a crackdown. Moreover, influential businesspeople and policymakers seemed to take aim at the market. Over the past weekend, bitcoin was hit hard by volatility.
Bitcoin’s price was trading below the $44,000 U.S. mark in early afternoon trading on May 17.
Big dogs like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have thrown shade at bitcoin and crypto at large. However, it has also benefited from endorsements from major payment platforms like PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL). In February, Elon Musk announced that Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had poured $1.5 billion into bitcoin and that the company would accept the digital currency for its vehicles.
This weekend, Elon Musk implied in a Twitter exchange that Tesla was selling or had sold its bitcoin holdings. Today, it appeared to regain some momentum after Musk hinted that he had not backed away from his bitcoin position. This petered out by the mid afternoon. There are many new retail investors who are about to be punished in this retreat.
Canada launched the very first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in February. The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (TSX:BTCC.B) was down 16% in mid-afternoon trading on May 17. I’m staying away from the crypto market in this volatile period.
