Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies decline as the Fed confirms interest rate hikes
By Ishika Dangayach on Jan 06, 2022 | 05:36 AM IST
• Bitcoin prices declined about 7% in the last 24 hours, dropping to $42,503.88
• Ether plummeted nearly 10% to $3,452.58
Bitcoin prices plummeted today after the Federal Reserve released the minutes' reports of its last policy gathering in 2021 that mentioned a hike of interest rates in the coming months.
Bitcoin (BTC) prices declined about 7% in the last 24 hours, dropping from $45,800 to $$42,503.88. This is the lowest price for cryptocurrency since September 2021. At 5:53 am Et BTC is trading at $42,872.
Other cryptocurrencies have also fallen. Ether plummeted nearly 10% to $3,452.58.
Read more: Wall Street records the first loss of 2022 as markets react to Fed’s minutes
Binance Coin, Cardano, Ripple, Dogecoin, Polygon, Shiba Inu, and Terra all saw losses ranging from 5.7% to 8.4 %.
The declines rippled to the remainder of the cryptocurrency market, which is down 5.9 percent today, for a total market valuation of $2.2 trillion.
At 5:58 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note increased to 1.74%. The 30-year Treasury note yield rose to 2.137 %.
Read more: Goldman Sachs says Bitcoin could reach $100k, compete with gold as 'store of value'
CRYPTO SCAMMERS
According to a blog published on Thursday by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, cryptocurrency-related crime reached a new high in terms of value last year, with unlawful addresses receiving $14 billion in digital currencies, a 79 percent increase from $7.8 billion in 2020.
This is an 81 percent increase over 2020, a year in which scamming activity decreased dramatically compared to 2019, owing in large part to the lack of big-scale Ponzi schemes.
Finiko, a Ponzi scam predominantly targeting Russian speakers throughout Eastern Europe, altered that in 2021, netting more than $1.1 billion victims.
Read more: Crypto exchange Binance signs deal with DWTC
Chainalysis said illegal addresses already possess over $10 billion in cryptocurrency as of early 2022, with the bulk of this held by wallets involved with crypto theft.