The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $21,000 U.S. in Asian trading today (June 14) as investors around the world continue to sell cryptocurrencies.
The biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell another 7% in overnight trading after losing 15% yesterday (June 13). Bitcoin most recently was trading at just over $22,000 U.S., according to data from Coindesk.
Bitcoin is now hovering near an 18-month low while other digital coins and tokens such as Ethereum (ETH) also trade sharply lower.
The market capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market has now fallen below $1 trillion U.S. for the first time since February of last year. More than $200 billion has been wiped off the cryptocurrency market since June 11.
The accelerated selloff was prompted by news that cryptocurrency lender “Celsius” halted all withdrawals due to market volatility, speaking fears of a solvency issue that could spread to other parts of the global cryptocurrency sector.
Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, stopped withdrawals of Bitcoin for over three hours yesterday before resuming redemptions.
Increasingly risk averse investors appear to be moving away from cryptocurrencies as fears of a global recession intensify. Bitcoin’s price has now fallen nearly 70% from its all-time high of $68,000 U.S. reached last November.
