This is not the Bitcoin halving the crypto industry was talking about in 2020. The Bitcoin price crashed on the worst day for equities markets in 33 years. The Dow Jones plummeted 9.99% during trading, the S&P 500 lost 9.51%, and the NASDAQ took a 9.43% dive.
Even spot gold declined by some 4% Thursday, as the logic of Bitcoin’s detractors like Peter Schiff, gold is now positively correlated with stocks. However, Bitcoin was the biggest loser, with a massive run on the world’s first cryptocurrency driving prices down by over 40% in under 24 hours.
Spikes punctuated the losses as opportunists took big bites out of Bitcoin on sale. This kind of volatile price action is common in capitulating markets.
Following a price crash of over $1500 in an hour, Bitcoin price was steady around the $6000 in the next hours, however, as the Asian side of the world woke up there came the second course: A sudden crash from the $6K zone to a current low of $4266 on BitMEX (as of writing these lines).
There were also wild discrepancies between Bitcoin prices on different cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, a $400 spread at one point between BitMEX and CoinBase.
Bitcoin’s price has cratered even further than this before, from its December 2017 all-time high of nearly $20,000 to even lower prices than today during the ‘Crypto Winter’ of 2018. But never has the Bitcoin price fallen so much in single day.
There’s no doubt an absolute hysteria over coronavirus that has wholly gripped the financial markets. Toilet paper became a trending term on Twitter on March 12, 2020, a day that will forever live in infamy because panic buyers bought all the toilet paper in big-box retailers across the United States.
Unfortunately, the same mentality has infected financial markets. It’s a testament to the reality that market pricing is only rational and value-based given enough time. And that given any short period, irrational emotions can be a significant factor in the pricing of financial goods.
All is left is to wait patiently to see what the new day will bring. Oh, yes. The new day is Friday the 13th…
