Bitcoin price news – live: BTC and Ethereum slide continues after sudden crypto crash

The Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index has switched to neutral today for the first time in more than a month.

The index aims to measure market sentiment by analysing various factors, including emotions across social media. It has been trending on ‘Greed’ for the last few weeks and was ‘Extreme Greed’ in October.

Crypto author Glen Goodman is one of several bitcoin analysts to suggest that the change is a positive thing for the market.

Australian Baseball League team Perth Heat has announced that it will become the first professional sports outfit to pay its players and staff in bitcoin.

From Friday, salary payments will be using the cryptocurrency, while fans will also be able to buy merchandise, tickets and club membership with BTC.

The ‘Bitcoin Baseball Team’ has appointed a chief bitcoin officer to usher in the change and shift the team’s corporate treasury from Australian dollars to bitcoin and “Hodl bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet”.

You can read the full story here.

The price of bitcoin has fallen below $59,000 on Wednesday morning, reaching its lowest point since late October.

It marks a trend for most of the leading cryptocurrencies, with Ethereum (ether), Cardano (ada) and Solana (SOL) all slipping slightly further from the heavy losses they saw yesterday. Losses over the last 24 hours average around 2 per cent.

The combined price drops have pushed the overall crypto market back to the $2.5 trillion level, which is still up more than 250 per cent since the start of the year.

As bitcoin continues to steadily clamber back the losses it suffered earlier today – it just returned above $61,000 – MicroStrategy boss Michael Saylor has claimed that the cryptocurrency is better than gold.

Under his leadership, the software company has become the biggest corporate investor in bitcoin, holding roughly $7 billion worth of the cryptocurrency.

It means the company’s value tends to fluctuate with the price of BTC, put this hasn’t put Saylor off his belief that bitcoin is a better store of value over the long term than traditional assets like gold.

Bitcoin continues to hold above the $60k mark, but only just.

As is customary following sudden price falls, the staunchest BTC advocates and most optimistic bulls are celebrating the opportunity to “buy the dip” and stock up on the cryptocurrency while its price is relatively cheap – at least compared to last week.

I’ve lost count of how many times bitcoin and other altcoins have suffered flash crashes during the various market rallies in 2021. It seems I’m not the only one:

If it is just a dip, and not a sustained drop, then the key is always timing:

Bitcoin is back above $60,000 – at least for now.

It is currently trading at around $60,500, having achieved the first significant reversal of this dip. The next hour or so will prove crucial to see whether the recovery can be sustained .

Social media is filling with hot takes from analysts and market commentators on what caused the crypto crash.

Market analyst and crypto author Glen Goodman believes bitcoin’s latest dip is caused by “excessive optimism”.

He tweets: “Corrections last as long as it takes for most traders to start losing hope and stop buying dips.”

The current bitcoin Fear and Greed Index, which measures crypto market sentiment, is currently swinging more towards greed than fear.

Bitcoin has dropped below $60,000, taking the total price losses to more than 10 per cent in this latest crash.

It is the first time since late October that BTC has fallen below this level, and it is not yet clear where the bottom of this dip is.

The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency fell to $59,016, according to CoinMarketCap’s price index, though it is too early to tell if there is any significant support at this level to prompt a rebound.

At this stage, there doesn’t appear to be one single reason for this mini price crash, with several factors potentially coming into play. There was the rejection by the SEC of the spot bitcoin ETF at the end of last week, though that had little market impact at the time and there are several more in the pipeline.

China has also tightened restrictions on crypto mining, though the crackdown earlier this year means the number of operations left in the country are negligible.

Finally, there is the possibility that long-term holders are taking the opportunity of the recent all-time high to skim off profits from their stash. A falling price also brings out the panic sellers, who are typically new to cryptocurrency investing and more prone to being spooked by sudden market movements.

Bitcoin has plunged by over 6 per cent in the last 24 hours as the overall crypto market has lost over 7 per cent of its value in the last day.

The price of several leading cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ethereum, solana, and cardano have plunged by 6 to 8 per cent in the last day, with the global crypto market valued at about $2.65 trillion.

Meme coins dogecoin and its spinoff shiba inu have also dropped in value by over 5 per cent in the last 24 hours.

The chart is all red with no signs of recovery yet.