The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen to $38,700 U.S. as the selloff that began with the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the U.S. accelerates.
Bitcoin has declined about 5% in the last 24 hours and is now down 20% from a peak of $49,000 U.S. that it reached in the lead up to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving spot Bitcoin ETFs for the American market on Jan. 10.
Bitcoin has now given up all the gains it achieved over the past two months as excitement for the spot ETFs peaked among retail investors.
The new crop of ETFs allows investors to track the price movements of Bitcoin without having to physically hold the cryptocurrency and were believed to be a major catalyst for the sector.
But instead, the ETF approvals appear to have become a sell-the-news event.
Many analysts expect the current selloff in Bitcoin to be short lived and point to steep declines in the past, followed by aggressive recoveries.
While some crypto analysts were hoping for Bitcoin to find support at $42,000 U.S. and rebound from there, others are forecasting that the price of Bitcoin could fall as low as $30,000 U.S. before recovering.
Despite the current downturn, the price of Bitcoin remains up 70% over the past year.
