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Investors continued to dump digital assets on Wednesday, aggravating a sell-off that pushed Bitcoin's price to its lowest point in 21 months.
The leading digital asset by market cap fell as low as $59,2175 before firming to $60,700, a 2.7% decrease over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The performance echoed signs of pressure on Wall Street and put Bitcoin on track for its third straight daily decline.
As the original cryptocurrency plunged, so too did various altcoins, with Ethereum showing a 3.1% decline to $1,610. XRP and Solana also wavered, falling 3.1% to $1.07 and 2.6% to $67, respectively. Dogecoin dropped 4.6% to 7.5 cents over the same period.
For XRP, the slump threatened to push the digital asset under $1 for the first time since shortly after President Donald Trump's 2024 reelection win. For Dogecoin, the fall earlier Wednesday thrust the first meme coin to its lowest levels since late 2023.
"Days like today are undoubtedly painful," Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at crypto asset manager Bitwise, told Decrypt. "But step back. We've seen this movie before."
Leon noted that pronounced drawdowns in crypto prices have felt thesis-breaking in the moment, but the technology continues to be adopted as a modern form of market plumbing.
He said that a risk-off move hitting AI and semiconductor stocks was affecting a market for digital assets that's already depressed, adding, "This bear market shall pass, and crypto will come out stronger on the other side."
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The weakness preceded a refresh of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, with economists anticipating the Personal Consumption Expenditures index to show a 4.1% annual increase in consumer prices on Thursday, accelerating for a third consecutive month.
Following hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh a week ago, analysts say investors are digesting expectations of tighter monetary policy, which typically weighs on risk assets. The Fed was projected to raise rates at its meeting in September, per CME Watch.
Amid lackluster price action, it appears some traders have grown less engaged, according to a note shared by Jasper De Maere, an OTC trader at crypto trading firm Wintermute.
"Flows are suggesting traders have started going into summer recess," he wrote. "It's possible we'll consolidate at these levels, at the mercy of the equity market which has the potential to pull crypto down alongside it in case of a further risk-off rotation."
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Although a 0.4% decline in the Nasdaq was led by Micron Technology before the firm announced earnings, the chipmaker's losses were outpaced by crypto-native firms.
Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy plunged 9% to $94.43 after bouncing off a 27-month low of $92.28, a move that intensified scrutiny on its flagship preferred stock, Stretch (STRC), which notched new lows Wednesday following a record drop last Thursday. Coinbase's stock price fell 5% to $150.11, while Robinhood shares slid 5.8% to $97.21 apiece.
BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, saw shares plunge 7.4% to $14.01, hitting their lowest level since the firm dedicated itself to accumulating the digital asset a year ago. (Disclosure: BitMine Chairman Tom Lee is an investor in Dastan, Decrypt's parent company.)
