Market News

BY  Anthony Cuthbertson

Bitcoin has managed to bounce back after crashing to an 18-month price low over the weekend.

The cryptocurrency is trading at around $30,000 at the start of the week, marking a 56 per cent drop from its all-time high last November, while other leading cryptocurrencies are also way down from their record highs.

The downturn has seen more than $1.5 trillion wiped from the market and led to warnings from analysts that another “crypto winter” similar to 2018 may be underway.

Bitcoin’s precarious price comes as El Salvador President Nayib Bukele hosts 44 countries on Monday to discuss the merits of the cryptocurrency and the benefits of adoption.

Eight months after El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender, several other countries appear close to adopting the cryptocurrency despite warnings from the IMF and some figures within the industry.

You can follow all the latest news, analysis and expert price predictions for bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and other leading cryptocurrencies in our live coverage below.

Crypto chief sees no future for bitcoin as currency

15:59 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has claimed that bitcoin has no future as a payments network due to its energy-intensive proof-of-work system.

Sam Bankman-Fried told the Financial Times that while bitcoin serves a useful function as a store of value, P0W means it is not scalable for use as a currency.

“Things that you’re doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost,” he said. “Proof of stake networks are.”

His comments drew immediate criticism from bitcoin advocates, who noted that the Lightning network was already being used to solve these issues on nationwide scales, like in El Salvador.

“Bitcoin is the future of money,” said MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. “Lightning is the future of payments.”

Bitcoin price crash memes

15:46 , Anthony Cuthbertson

I’ve been reporting on bitcoin for nearly a decade now, and one thing I’ve noticed is that there is always far more interest in stories when the market is crashing compared to when it is rising.

While some of these readers may be cautious investors checking whether the downturn is the ‘big one’, and therefore time to pull out, the majority of clicks appear to be those indulging in a bit of schadenfreude - at least judging by the comments and memes. (One popular Twitter account dedicated to just this is ‘Crypto Bros Taking Ls’, which has gained nearly half a million followers since joining the platform this time last year.)

You know its a big crash when even non-crypto accounts are getting involved, and the latest downturn has been a feeding frenzy. It has drawn mockery from seemingly the least likely of sources, with even Ryanair - consistently voted among the worst airlines in Which? surveys - having a pop:

El Salvador hosts 44 countries to discuss bitcoin

14:24 , Anthony Cuthbertson

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele appears far from being spooked by the latest price crash, instead annoucning that he will be hosting 44 countries to discuss the benefits of bitcoin.

Representatives of Africa’s two biggest economies - Egypt and Nigeria - will be among those attending, with one of the main topics for discussion being that of financial inclusion and banking the unbanked.