Bitcoin Plummets Below $6,000 on Concerns Over Spread of Coronavirus

Earlier today, Bitcoin plunged below $6,000 as coronavirus continues to spread across the globe in an unabated manner. Panic among investors triggered the selloff and sharp fall below the level last seen in May 2019.

For a short moment, the crypto reached $5,705.31, as per data provided by Bloomberg.

However, it has recovered a portion of losses to trade at $5,902, reflecting a loss of 23.2% in the past 24 hours, at the time of writing this article.

Reflecting Bitcoin’s sharp decline, Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index dropped to a low of 29%, while the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust dipped by 7%. Data from Coin360 mirrored the gloomy day for Bitcoin traders as the BTC/USD pair nosedived below $6,000.

The selloff deepened as the day progressed, with loses exceeding 20% in the past 24 hours in all the exchanges. Bitcoin’s decline was enough to drag down other altcoins such as Litecoin, Ether and Ripple.

Matthew Dibb, co-founder of the institutional-grade platform Stack, pointed out that Bitcoin would remain weak in the short-term. “The short-term outlook for Bitcoin remains bearish, as investors are clearly not looking at Bitcoin as a safe haven asset.”

Entrepreneur Alistair Milne outlined the decline as follows:

“And that looks like capitulation to me.”

BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes has forecast that the cryptocurrency has hit the bottom by dropping below $6,000.

Surprisingly, even traditional safe-haven assets have declined along with altcoins, which recorded huge losses across the board.

The 10-year US Treasury bond yield also appreciated Thursday, indicating that investors were dumping bonds with long-term maturity, rather than buying. Gold, another safe-haven asset also dropped over 1% Thursday.