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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) dropped to a two-month low in Thursday early afternoon trading, after trading in a narrow range months before, as rate-hike fears reduced investors’ risk appetite.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap (BTC-USD) gapped down 4.3% to $27.8K at 12:10 p.m. ET, coinciding with a 5.2% slide in ethereum (ETH-USD) as well as other tokens.
Overall, the global crypto market value retreated 3.4% to $1.11T, CoinMarketCap data showed. Weakness among crypto prices comes as rising global bond yields, driven by resilient economic data that have fueled worries over more rate hikes, make alternative investments (for example, crypto) less appealing.
At the time of writing, all three major U.S. stock-market indices changed hands in the red, after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting on Wednesday showed several policymakers were open to further rate increases to contain inflation.
Of course, crypto-linked stocks suffered losses, too. CleanSpark (CLSK) -11.5%, Riot Platforms (RIOT) -9.7%, Marathon Digital (MARA) -9.3%, HIVE Blockchain (HIVE) -7.6%, MicroStrategy (MSTR) -5% and Coinbase Global (COIN) -4% were among some of the biggest intraday losers.
