Cryptos plunge, Bitcoin plummets below $22,000
The world's leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), fell over 5% on Friday. The sharp drop in bitcoin shows that investors are possibly paying attention to mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials about the likely pace of interest rate hikes.
This week, market participants received the latest minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, where central bankers continue to see the need to keep raising interest rates to cool inflation. In theory, the cryptos should trade independently, but they have proven to be highly correlated with other assets sensitive to risk, such as stocks.
In other news, earlier, it was also known that South Korea plans to bar domestic access to foreign cryptos exchanges that do not have the appropriate registration to trade in the country and could launch a probe into the companies.
Bitcoin fell by 5.50% at 3:00 am ET, selling for $21,919, while Ether dropped 5.35% to go for $1,748.05 at the same time.