The white-knuckle bitcoin ride yesterday took another twist as the worst two-day tumble in the digital currency since March last year stoked concern that the polarizing cryptocurrency boom might run out of steam.
Bitcoin slid as much as 21 percent over Sunday and yesterday to as low as US$32,389. That is the biggest two-day slide since global markets were first roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic last year and follows a record high of almost US$42,000 on Friday.
“It’s to be determined whether this is the start of a larger correction, but we have now seen this parabola break so it might just be,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of business development with crypto exchange Luno in Singapore.
Bitcoin’s price has more than quadrupled in the past year, evoking memories of the 2017 mania that first made cryptocurrencies a household name before prices collapsed just as quickly.
“Time to take some money off the table,” Guggenheim Investments chief investment officer Scott Minerd wrote on his verified Twitter account. “Bitcoin’s parabolic rise is unsustainable in the near term.”
Minerd late last month predicted bitcoin could eventually reach US$400,000.
True believers in bitcoin argue the rally this time is different from past boom-bust cycles because the asset has matured with the entry of institutional investors and is increasingly seen as a legitimate hedge against US dollar weakness and inflation risk.
Others worry that the rally is untethered from reason and fueled by vast swathes of fiscal and monetary stimulus, with bitcoin unlikely to ever serve as a viable currency alternative.
“Bitcoin is almost certainly in another bubble and its current growth rate is not sustainable,” Convoy Investments LLC cofounder Howard Wang (王昊昊) wrote in a note on Sunday. “While it may mature in the future, Bitcoin as it exists is largely a speculative asset.”
Bitcoin has shrugged off recent dips and might do so again, potentially recovering to as much as US$44,000 “before the actual correction,” Ayyar said.
Bitcoin was holding near session lows at about US$33,200 as of 7:08am in London. Rival digital assets are also slumping, with second-largest coin ether tumbling as much as 21 percent.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS