Bitcoin's Biggest Crash Since 2022: Market Plunge Shocks Analysts Amid Global Financial Uncertainty"

 

Bitcoin has recently experienced its steepest price crash since 2022, plunging by over 10% on Monday morning to reach a six-month low. The leading cryptocurrency dipped below the $50,000 (£39,000) mark for the first time since February, before recovering slightly to $52,000 at the time of writing.

This sharp decline follows one of the most bullish periods in Bitcoin’s history. In March, it soared to an all-time high of $74,000 and remained near that level until this recent crash. However, Bitcoin is not alone in this downturn—other major cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL), have all seen even greater declines of around 15% in the last 24 hours.

The broader cryptocurrency market has suffered a significant blow, shrinking from over $2 trillion to $1.85 trillion, marking a 13% drop in a single day. When combined with losses from the previous week, Bitcoin alone has shed nearly a quarter of its value in just seven days.

This latest crash is occurring amid a larger slump in global financial markets, spurred by concerns over an impending global recession. The sudden nature of the cryptocurrency market’s downturn has caught many market analysts off guard. Until recently, the general consensus was that Bitcoin was poised to reach new record highs, especially after the successful implementation of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which brought billions of dollars into the market.

Another factor driving the optimism earlier this year was the Bitcoin halving event, which took place in April. This event, hardcoded into Bitcoin's underlying infrastructure, cuts mining rewards in half every four years as a measure against inflation. Historically, halvings have often been followed by massive price surges.

According to Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, the scale of this sell-off was unexpected, particularly at a time when the four-year cyclical pattern of Bitcoin price behavior should have been favoring the bulls. Kuptsikevich noted that a sell-off of this magnitude is typical in bear markets but unusual in the current context, where many were anticipating continued growth.