The price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 7.5% and fell close to $41,000 U.S. in overnight trading ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last interest rate decision of the year on Dec. 13.
The decline represented the steepest drop in Bitcoin’s price since Aug. 18 of this year and comes after the largest digital token rallied more than 150% this year.
Bitcoin has since pared some of its losses to trade down 3.3% at $42,200 U.S.
Most major cryptocurrencies are also falling today (Dec. 11) ahead of the U.S. central bank’s final rate decision of the year.
The index of the largest 100 cryptocurrencies is down the most in a single trading session since Nov. 22.
The decline in Bitcoin came as $310 million U.S. of positions in the cryptocurrency were liquidated in the past 24 hours.
Analysts appear to be chalking the selling up to profit taking ahead of the rate decision, where the Fed is widely expected to hold its trendsetting interest rate at current levels.
Still, the latest decline is a sharp reversal for the crypto market which has been rallying hard since the end of October on expectations that regulators will soon approve spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
