Bitcoin is the standout victim of a neck-snapping reordering of the hierarchy in risky assets. Let it burn.
Early on Friday, the libertarian fan token fell to within a whisker of $60,000 a pop, marking a brutal 30 per cent decline so far this year and a 50 per cent decline from its all-time peak in October last year. Despite the hope and enthusiasm that the re-election of Donald Trump provided to the industry, bitcoin itself — the biggest beast in crypto — now stands comfortably below the level it held at the time of that vote.
Driving this decline is the same thing that always drives the price of bitcoin — a pullback in market exuberance in general and in tech in particular. (Clever-sounding rationalisations relating to inflation, demand for havens and a recalibration of the financial system away from proper currencies have always been for the birds.)