The price of leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin today sank below $28,000 per coin for the first time in nearly two months.
The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading for $27,765 as of this writing, according to CoinGecko, a 24-hour drop of more than 4%.
Bitcoin had soared to $31,000 in June, a run triggered by the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock filing an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
But the price largely sat still throughout July and then today dipped sharply—with some analysts attributing the sell-off to Wall Street’s biggest regulator taking its time to approve the long list of spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
Sell-side research firm Wolfe Research said in a report that it was likely Bitcoin’s price would continue to dip before shooting higher again if regulators say yes to a Bitcoin ETF, CNBC reported Thursday.
The SEC is currently reviewing a number of high-profile Bitcoin ETF applications and analysts are betting that it’s likely the regulator could say yes to one.
The rest of the market also dropped—as it usually does when there is a Bitcoin sell-off—on Thursday.
Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, shed 4.5% of its value in 24 hours and was trading for $1,735 by midday Eastern Time, CoinGecko data showed. Meanwhile Dogecoin, a “meme coin” favored by the Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk, dropped by over 5% to $0.06.
Another meme coin, Shiba Inu, was the worst hit by the sell-off on Thursday, dropping by over 10% in a day to $0.00000859.
The token had jumped in value after its creators earlier this month announced the a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) protocol.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/152809/bitcoin-plunges-below-28000-first-time-two-months
