The price of Bitcoin dropped below US$40,000 on Friday for the second time in two weeks, in the face of headwinds from the Russian central bank’s call to ban crypto trading.
Fast facts
- Bitcoin lost up to 11% on Friday morning Asia time and was trading at US$38,599 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap.
- The world’s largest cryptocurrency last dropped below the psychological price point only on Jan. 11 and is a sign of the wider market’s sluggish start to 2022.
- Russia is the third-largest Bitcoin miner by average monthly hashrate share (at 11%) after the U.S. (35%) and Kazakhstan (18%), according to a Cambridge University index.
- The total crypto market cap fell below US$2 trillion, and has been treading water since dropping below that point in early January for the first time since October 2021.
- Ethereum was down 13% over the same time frame, trading at US$2,848, and altcoins Cardano and Solana both fell around 15%, trading at US$1.22 and US$125, respectively.