Bitcoin Falling 8% and Ether Down 9%

Bitcoin prices plummeted on Thursday night, as did ether prices, wiping out nearly $150 billion from the crypto market.

BTC has dropped nearly 8% in the last 24 hours and was trading at $38,709 at writing.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has dropped more than 9% in the last 24 hours, as of 1:42 a.m. It was trading at $2,853, falling as low as $2,809.51 in the previous 24 hours.

In the last 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market has lost approximately $147 billion.

Cryptocurrency losses follow Wall Street losses on Thursday. The Nasdaq is down nearly 5% this week, and the S&P 500 is down for the third week in a row. Rising rates have caused investors to exit riskier assets, as evidenced by a 10-year U.S. Treasury yield spike earlier this week. Yields move in the opposite direction of prices.

The Federal Reserve has also stated that it intends to reduce its balance sheet, taper bonds, and raise interest rates.

A typical investment case for bitcoin is that it serves as a hedge against rising inflation caused by government stimulus. Still, analysts warn that a more hawkish Federal Reserve may take the wind out of bitcoin’s sails.

According to analyst Edward Moya, it was a little disappointing that bitcoin did not react more positively to the reversal in Treasury yields.

Bitcoin Price and Regulators

Since November, bitcoin prices have plummeted by more than 40% from a record high of around $69,000.

Some experts predict that the crypto market will soon enter a bear market. This will happen due to increased regulatory scrutiny and volatile price fluctuations, which have dampened bitcoin’s prospects.

Regulators are also targeting cryptocurrencies. China has outlawed all cryptocurrency-related activities, and U.S. authorities are also cracking down on specific market aspects. In a Thursday note, Oanda’s Moya predicted that bitcoin would fall below $40,000 as Russia’s central bank proposed a ban on cryptocurrency use and mining on Russian territory, claiming that the digital currency threatens “financial stability and monetary policy sovereignty.

Bitcoin Boom in Turkey

In Turkey, cryptocurrency trading has grown in popularity during a financial crisis that has seen the lira’s value halved in the last year. In contrast, inflation has recently risen above 30 percent, a two-decade high.

Most Turkish citizens who want to avoid lira depreciation reinvest in dollars or gold. However, an increasing number of younger investors see cryptocurrencies as the way forward. The growing distrust in government solutions proves that digital currencies are the best alternative to Turkey’s beleaguered lira to cryptocurrency supporters.

However, it is unclear whether cryptocurrencies truly offer a chance to get rich. According to evangelists such as the AltCoin founders, it is the individual’s fault if the influx of unknowing investors falls victim to scams or wastes their money.