Bitcoin bounces back after brief drop below $99k

WEB DESK: Bitcoin opened Thursday in the green, barely managing to stay above its previous close of $100,189.90. In the initial trading hours, it was trading slightly above the $100,000 mark.

According to Google’s price tracker, the cryptocurrency hovered around $100,199 at the opening.

However, Bitcoin’s value dropped significantly after 01:00 UTC, touching $99,000. Following some fluctuation, it further declined to $98,928.28 around 02:29 UTC.

Later, Bitcoin bounced back and rose to $101,302 by 05:24 UTC, slightly surpassing the previous day’s close.

The United States Federal Reserve announced its third consecutive interest rate cut, this time by 25 basis points. Unlike previous cuts in recent months, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market reacted with immediate and sharp declines.

This may have been influenced by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks, hinting at a potential halt in further rate cuts due to worrying inflation data from October and November.

“Today was a closer call, but we decided it was the right one,” Powell stated.

Bitcoin’s price took a hard hit, plunging to a multi-day low of $100,250, with the downward trend showing no signs of slowing. The cryptocurrency had already dropped from $108,300 to $105,000 in just 36 hours, marking a steep decline of over $8,000.

As expected, more volatile altcoins experienced even greater losses. XRP was one of the worst performers, briefly dropping below $2.2 before rebounding to $2.3, still down over 11 per cent for the day. DOGE, AVAX, and SHIB saw similar declines, while ETH, BNB, and SOL posted slightly less severe drops.

The total crypto market cap, which had already fallen by $150 billion since yesterday, shed another $200 billion, bringing it down to $3.65 trillion, according to CG.

The total value of liquidated positions soared to nearly $700 million, with long positions making up the bulk at $600 million. The number of liquidated traders exceeded 250,000 on the day, according to CoinGlass.

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