Bitcoin news – live: Dramatic price crash hits BTC amid growing fears of ‘crypto winter’

Bitcoin has seen yet another plunge, as the crypto market experiences yet another blow in a difficult star to the year.

The whole market has dropped around 9 per cent, with high trading volumes and almost all digital currencies seeing dramatic falls.

Supporters had hoped that cryptocurrency could start to stabilise after bitcoin’s most difficult start to a year ever, and amid possibly supportive news such as rising inflation. But it has instead continued to drop, and the market is seeing yet another sell-off.

You can follow all the latest bitcoin developments, as well as news from other leading cryptocurrencies, right here.

Key points

• Bitcoin price plunges dramatically

14:30 , Adam Smith

Elizaveta Danilova, head of Russia’s central bank’s financial stability department, said that Russian citizens could still own cryptocurrency abroad but would be subject to regulators tracking their coins.

“We consider it very important to ban using Russian financial infrastructure to obtain cryptocurrency. We think this will help remove a significant part of the risks and ensure that cryptocurrency won’t be so popular,” she said.

Russia’s cryptocurrency ban

14:00 , Adam Smith

The price crash comes as Russia proposes outlawing all cryptocurrency operations in the country.

“The breakneck growth and market value of cryptocurrency is defined primarily by speculative demand for future growth, which creates bubbles,” Russia’s central bank said, as reported by the Financial Times.

“Cryptocurrencies also have aspects of financial pyramids, because their price growth is largely supported by demand from new entrants to the market.”

Bitcoin price plunges dramatically

12:59 , Andrew Griffin

Cryptocurrency is having another very tough time. It’s now fallen through the symbolic floor of $40,000, and is continuing to drop.

Here’s the full story.

Bitcoin price ‘holding up very well'

Thursday 20 January 2022 19:30 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The price of bitcoin has finally returned above $43,000, following a late surge on Thursday. It is the first time since last Saturday that it has reached above this level, with analysts saying it is resisting pressure from traditional markets.

“Bitcoin is holding up very well considering the US stock market had another plunge yesterday – the S&P dropped by around 1 per cent,” Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at the UK-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, told The Independent.

“Data from Coinsares shows that there were $73 million in outflows last week, which is the fifth consecutive week of outflows. I think the main reason for this is the market being spooked by the Federal Reserve raising rates this year, but when the stock market sees some relief, I expect a strong squeeze to the upside for bitcoin and the whole market.”

Student accidentally makes a fortune after making joke NFT

Thursday 20 January 2022 16:09 , Anthony Cuthbertson

An Indonesian student, who thought “it might be funny” to turn a collection of selfies into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has made a fortune.

Over the last few days, individual selfies have been reaching up to 4 ETH ($12,500), while the entire series of nearly 1,000 selfie NFTs is valued at around 374 ETH ($1.2 million). You can read Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali’s full story here.

If you’re unfamiliar with NFTs, feel free to check out our guide. You can also listen my attempt to explain them on the latest episode of Ed Miliband’s Reasons to be Cheerful podcast, where I also tried to unpick the hype surrounding them, and speculated on their future potential.

Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd

Elon Musk offers thoughts on cryptocurrencies

Thursday 20 January 2022 14:48 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Elon Musk is back sharing memes about cryptocurrency on Twitter.

His latest offering is a still from the sci-fi movie Interstellar, with the caption: “1 hour here is 7 years on earth.” It’s a reference to how quick the cryptocurrency markets move compared to traditional markets.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss has previously revealed that he has personally invested in bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and dogecoin, as well as piling some of his company’s cash reserves into the cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin donations pour in for Tonga

Thursday 20 January 2022 09:57 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Hundreds of bitcoin donations have been made in recent days towards relief efforts in Tonga following the devastating volcanic eruption.

Tongan politician Lord Fusitu’a made a call for crypto donations over Twitter to a bitcoin address, which has already received more than 350 payments.

Lord Fusitu’a has previously spoken about plans to develop bitcoin mining facilities that run off the geothermal energy generated by volcanos in the country, and is also leading a proposal to make the cryptocurrency an official form of currency in Tonga.

You can read the full story here.

Tonga receives hundreds of bitcoin donations after volcano devastation

Thursday 20 January 2022 02:48 , Vishwam Sankaran

Bitcoin, ethereum, cardano prices drop

The prices of leading cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ethereum and cardano continued to drop since Wednesday with the overall crypto market plunging in value by about 2 per cent in the last day.

Bitcoin’s value remains slightly above $42,000 but has dropped in price by about 1 per cent in the last 24 hours.

Ethereum has also dropped in value by 1 per cent in the last day and is currently priced at $3,125.

Cardano, which experienced a price surge last week by nearly 40 per cent, has plunged in value by over 10 per cent in the last day.

Meme coins dogecoin and shiba inu have also dropped in value by about 1 to 2 per cent in the last 24 hours.

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

Wednesday 19 January 2022 02:59 , Vishwam Sankaran

Bitcoin price stabilises

After dropping below $42,000 on Tuesday, bitcoin’s price has stabilised around the mark, showing marginal signs of recovery.

Meanwhile, other leading cryptocurrencies including ethereum, cardano, and polkadot have dropped in value in the last 24 hours.

Cardano, which had surged by about 40 per cent last week, has also plunged by over 4 per cent in the last day.

Meme coins dogecoin and its spinoff shiba inu have also dropped in value by 2 to 3 per cent in the last 24 hours.

The overall crypto market has dropped by about a per cent and is currently valued at $2 trillion.

Bitcoin taking market share from gold

Tuesday 18 January 2022 12:59 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Bitcoin will take market share away from gold in 2022, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Zach Pandl, who predicts the cryptocurrency will become more universally adopted.

Bitcoin is often referred to as “digital gold” due to its inbuilt scarcity and utility as a store of value, with some believing it could challenge the precious metal’s historical dominance.

“Bitcoin may have applications beyond simply a ‘store of value’ - and digital asset markets are much bigger than bitcoin - but we think that comparing its market capitalisation to gold can help put parameters on plausible outcomes for Bitcoin returns,” Mr Pandl wrote in a research note.

Tuesday 18 January 2022 02:58 , Vishwam Sankaran

Bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin prices drop

The prices of top cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ethereum, solana and dogecoin have dropped by 1 to 4 per cent in the last 24 hours and the overall crypto market has also plunged in value over the last day.

Bitcoin price has dropped by over 1.5 per cent in the last day and is currently valued at about $42,000.

Meanwhile, cardano has surged by about 9 per cent and has grown in value by nearly 40 per cent in the last week.

Meme coins dogecoin and its spinoff currency shiba inu have plunged in value by over 2 per cent in the last 24 hours.

The overall crypto market is down by over 2 per cent in the last day and is valued at $2.02 trillion.

Monday 17 January 2022 15:34 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Bitcoin has dipped in price slightly over the last few hours, testing that key level of support mentioned earlier. This hasn’t put of one of the most popular and bullish BTC analysts, TechDev, who still predicts a significant rally before this cycle concludes.

Analysis based on the creation of new bitcoin addresses apparently suggests that “at least one more upward impulse” is on its way, “before an impulsive downtrend (bear market) begins”. Here’s his calculations:

Rio de Janeiro embraces bitcoin

Monday 17 January 2022 11:37 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro has announced plans to hold 1 per cent of the city’s treasury in cryptocurrency.

Eduardo Paes is the latest politician from Latin America to embrace cryptocurrency, offering citizens of Brazil’s second largest city various benefits if they use bitcoin.

“The city also intends to offer taxpayers discounts if they pay their tax bills in bitcoin,” Simon Peters, a crypto analyst at the online trading platform eToro, wrote in a note on Monday morning. “Paes intends to turn the city into a hub of crypto innovation, with other unannounced tax innovations to encourage the crypto sector still to come in the region.”

Bitcoin set for ‘interesting week'

Monday 17 January 2022 10:38 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The downward trend bitcoin has experienced since hitting an all-time high back in November is about to be tested by a short term positive price trend.

Crypto analyst Will Clemente says it “should be an interesting week”, as the converging symmetrical triangle pattern comes to its conclusion over the coming days.

Failing to maintain the support could see the long-term trend continue, however breaking above the resistance level could signal and end to the bear market and give momentum back to the bulls. Either way, we should finally see some movement after several days of stagnation.

Hello and welcome...

Monday 17 January 2022 09:45 , Anthony Cuthbertson

to The Independent’s live coverage of the crypto market. We’ll be bringing you all the latest news, analysis and expert price predictions for bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies.