On the morning of May 17, the price of bitcoin on the Binance crypto exchange fell to a minimum since the beginning of February – to $ 42.1 thousand. At the time of preparing the material, the cost of the main cryptocurrency is $ 44.3 thousand. During the day, the asset has fallen in price by 8%. Altcoin quotes also decreased: Ethereum by 8%, Binance Coin by 10%, Cardano and XRP – by 8% and 7%, respectively, writes RBC Crypto.
The experts explained why the crypto market collapsed and what will happen to Bitcoin in the near future.
Bullish trend in question
The bullish trend that has been driving the cryptocurrency since the end of last year has exhausted itself, says Nikita Soshnikov, director of the Alfacash cryptocurrency exchange service. According to him, this happened even before Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized the main cryptocurrency for being environmentally friendly. Last week, the automaker stopped selling its electric vehicles for Bitcoin until cryptocurrency mining begins with renewable energy sources.
Bitcoin hit the $ 60 thousand bar and could not gain a foothold at this level, so it rolled back to $ 50 thousand and has since traded at this level, and the recent criticism from Musk only aggravated the current position of the digital coin, the expert says.
On May 17, Musk once again criticized Bitcoin and questioned its decentralization. As an argument, Musk cited the recent situation with power outages in China, which reduced the network hashrate of the main cryptocurrency by 35%.
“For a trend reversal, some more impressive events are needed – the arrival of a large institutional player, regulatory changes, the adoption of cryptocurrency by a major participant in the financial system. Until that happens, bitcoin will continue to fluctuate at the current level, ”Soshnikov predicts.
Effect Mask
Tesla has already benefited from the sale of bitcoins this year, earning $ 101 million, so now it is a bit sly to criticize the coin, said Janis Kivkulis, lead strategist at EXANTE. In his opinion, the sale of all digital coins could speak of the automaker’s disappointment in the main cryptocurrency, but this has not happened yet. The company still pragmatically treats bitcoin as a normal investment asset, the strategist added.
The publications of Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter should not be tied to the company’s financial policy, advises Sergey Zhdanov, CEO of the EXMO crypto exchange. In his opinion, the automaker will only sell Bitcoin if it is profitable for him, and Musk’s tweets have recently been inconsistent and reminiscent of market manipulation.
Nikita Soshnikov from Alfacash also doubts that Tesla will start getting rid of bitcoins. “You shouldn’t think of Musk or Tesla as some kind of emotional newcomers to the financial market. Unlike his fans, Musk always acts quite deliberately, although it does not seem to be from the outside, “he explained.
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