Bitcoin dropped below $50,000 this afternoon, hitting its lowest level since mid-February, as investors worried that its price may have gotten too high, too fast.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency in terms of volume fell to as low as $47,400, its weakest in one week.
At one point, it lost nearly 17% of its value, or about $160 billion from its total market capitalisation.
Bitcoin was last down 12.3% at $50,495.
Bitcoin had rallied over the weekend to record levels, almost doubling year-to-date.
It hit a market capitalisation of $1 trillion on Friday.
Bitcoin’s gains have been fuelled by signs it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, from Tesla and Mastercard to BNY Mellon.
Rival cryptocurrency ether fell 7% to $1,798 after also hitting a record high on Saturday.
Traders said the move was largely technical, and not tied to any particular news catalyst.
“We did finally see some momentum gathering over the weekend, but weekend rallies haven’t been sustainable lately,” said Joseph Edwards of Enigma Securities, a cryptocurrency broker in London.
“We do tend to think that there’s a good chance of a down week and small correction coming in off of this, although it does little to dull medium-term prospects,” he added.
Tesla boss Elon Musk, whose tweets on bitcoin have added fuel to the cryptocurrency’s rally, said on Saturday the price of bitcoin and ethereum seemed high.
