Bitcoin price – live: Crypto market suddenly crashes, wiping value from Ethereum and dogecoin

The market has taken a sudden downwards turn on Tuesday morning, with leading cryptocurrencies all losing around 10 per cent of their value overnight.

Bitcoin, Ethereum (ether), Cardano (ada), Binance Coin and dogecoin all fell by between 10-15 per cent, though the immediate cause of the crash is unknown.

Many analysts had predicted a more positive trajectory at the start of the week due to a slew of positive news in the crypto space.

Yet another US sports team has announced payment support for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

From next season, fans of the San Jose Sharks will be able to buy tickets and suite leases using btc, Ethereum (ether) and dogecoin, the president of the NHL franchise announced.

The Sharks have partnered with BitPay in order to process transactions, with PayPal’s recent move into the space acting as the catalyst.

“We’re accepting PayPal, so then by definition, we’re accepting cryptocurrency,” Sharks president Jonathan Becher said. “Why not embrace it and make it more visible as opposed to just doing it through a third party.”

Interest in El Salvador real estate has spiked after President Nayib Bukele declared bitcoin legal tender and detailed the benefits of moving to the country.

“Great weather, world class surfing beaches, beach front properties for sale,” he tweeted.

“No capital gains tax for #Bitcoin, since it will be a legal currency… Immediate permanent residence for crypto entrepreneurs.”

Even Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ), the CEO of Binance, described the offer as “enticing”, while sharing an animated gif of Mickey Mouse frantically packing.

Former US president and social media pariah Donald Trump has claimed bitcoin is a “scam”, while simultaneously referring to it as a currency.

“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I was surprised – you know, with us, it was at $6,000 and, much lower,” he told Fox News.

“I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar, essentially it’s a currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to the currency of the world. That’s what I’ve always said.”

His comments come just a day after the president of El Salvador declared it legal tender in the country, alongside the US dollar.

Among those most consistently bullish about bitcoin’s future have been the Winklevoss twins, who bought into the cryptocurrency back in 2014 after their social network misadventures saw them clash with fellow Harvard student and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

They now own and operate the crypto exchange Gemini and have estimated holdings of around $1.4 billion in bitcoin each.

Speaking at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, they explained why they believe the price of bitcoin is heading towards $500,000.

“Bitcoin is gold 2.0, it will disrupt gold, so it’s market cap has to be $10 trillion or more because that’s the market cap of gold,” one of the twins said.

“So even at $35,000 it feels like a really good buying opportunity long term, because we think at a $10 trillion market cap, we think one bitcoin will be worth $500,000, and we think that could happen inside this decade.”

The rate at which bitcoins are being removed from crypto exchanges is at its highest since November.

The trend, noted by on-chain analyst William Clemente (@WClementeIII), is viewed by some as a bullish signal for the market.

The price of bitcoin was trading below $20,000 the last time this many bitcoins were being taken off exchanges and put into cold storage. It then proceeded to break its previous all-time high and continued setting new price highs for the next six months, before the subsequent crash.

A congressman from Paraguay has followed the lead of El Salvador’s president by adding bitcoin laser eyes to his Twitter profile picture.

Carlitos Rejala posted the updated profile pic alongside the words: “As I was saying a long time ago, our country needs to advance hand in hand with the new generation.

“The moment has come, our moment. This week we start with an important project to innovate Paraguay in front of the world! The real one to the moon #Bitcoin”

It’s an uncharacteristically flat day in the markets today: ethereum, which is up 1.42 per cent, is the most volatile of all the big coins. The rest – bitcoin, cardano, even the perennially excitable doge – have all moved about 0.5 per cent or less.

The president of El Salvador has declared bitcoin “legal tender”, allowing it to be used as an official form of currency in the country.

President Nayib Bukele is the first world leader to formally adopt bitcoin or any other decentralised cryptocurrency, and emphasised his enthusiasm for the digital currency by adding “laser eyes” to his Twitterprofile picture.

Now cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex says it is planning its own moon mission: to put bitcoin there first.

Elon Musk has comented on the plans on Twitter. “A new space race has begun!” he wrote.