Bitcoin price falls below $47,000
On Saturday, 4 December, the price of the leading cryptocurrency fell below $47,000. The drop over the past 24 hours stood at 16%, according to CoinGecko.
Bitcoin price briefly fell to $42,000.
The Ethereum price collapsed to $3,500. At the time of writing the cryptocurrency was trading at around $3,800.
Other top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation also moved into the red, with the exception of stablecoins. Terra (LUNA) entered the top ten for the first time.
On the Bitcoin futures market, liquidations over the past 24 hours amounted to $961 million, over the hour — $342 million.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell to $2.28 trillion, with Bitcoin’s market cap at $898 billion, according to CoinGecko.
The Block analyst Larry Cermak recorded long-position liquidations totaling $1.3 billion as the price of “digital gold” fell to $42,000.
“The first massive liquidation in a while,” he wrote.
We’ve seen $1.3 billion in long positions liquidated on this dump from $51k to to $42k. Keep in mind this number is likely undercounted because of Binance and Bybit limiting liquidations data. First massive liquidation in a while pic.twitter.com/wfh9f2PItT
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) December 4, 2021
Journalist Colin Wu, citing data from Nansen, reported that the large-scale liquidation pushed Ethereum gas price up to roughly 1000 gwei.
According to Nansen data, the large-scale liquidation and replenishment on the ETH chain once pushed up Gas fees by nearly 1000 gwei. pic.twitter.com/pHcyjHdvyV
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 4, 2021
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said that the state Bitcoin fund bought an additional 150 BTC during the fall, at an average price of $48,670. With the new investment, his balance stands at 1,370 BTC.
“Missed the f***ing bottom by 7 minutes,” he wrote.
Missed the f***ing bottom by 7 minutes 😂
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 4, 2021
Tron founder Justin Sun said that he followed the example of the El Salvador president and bought 100 BTC at an average price of $47,627.
Elon Musk reacted to the fall in Bitcoin’s price with a meme.
“Hey, man, you really should get into crypto. Web3 is the future. Join our DAO,” the image caption says.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 4, 2021
AFP News Agency reported that the Chinese government summoned the founder of Evergrande amid warnings that there were no guaranteed funds to meet its financial obligations in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
In early November Bitcoin retraced from its all-time high on news of Evergrande’s potential default. The leading cryptocurrency shed nearly 9%, breaking below $63,000.
Analyst Michaël van de Poppe called the Bitcoin drop scenario “very simple.” He said the correction was driven by unrealised expectations of a December bull run.
Galaxy Digital Research analysts attributed the market drop to broad nerves tied to the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant called “Omicron” and statements by the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve about accelerating the pace of winding down asset purchases.
In early November Bitcoin retraced from its all-time high on news of Evergrande’s potential default. The leading cryptocurrency shed nearly 9%, breaking below $63,000.
Analyst Michaël van de Poppe called the Bitcoin drop scenario “very simple.” He said the correction was driven by unrealised expectations of a December bull run.
Galaxy Digital Research analysts cited broad market nerves from the emergence of the Omicron variant and statements by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about the pace of tapering asset purchases as the reasons for the decline.