Bitcoin has posted its biggest one-day drop in almost two months, amid warnings that novice investors could suffer heavy losses from speculating in crypto assets such as “meme coin” dogecoin.
Bitcoin tumbled more than 11% on Sunday, dropping from about $62,000 (£45,000) to $55,000 – its lowest level since the end of March. Last week, the cryptocurrency had hit fresh record highs at nearly $65,000.
Various reasons for the drop were cited, which followed a strong rally last week. Bitcoin had already weakened on Friday, after Turkey’s central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets for purchases, citing the risks of possible “irreparable” losses.
Data website CoinMarketCap also reported the blackout in China’s Xinjiang region, which reportedly powers a lot of bitcoin mining, for the selloff.
There were also unsubstantiated reports that the US Treasury could be planning a crackdown on money laundering carried out through digital assets, pointed out Bloomberg.
Despite the decline, bitcoin was still up over 90% for the year, and almost five times higher than last October.
Bitcoin’s drop came as dogecoin – originally created as a joke – also fell back from its latest peak, after a remarkable surge this year.
Dogecoin has gained more than 6,000% since the start of 2021, from $0.0046 to about $0.30 on Sunday, having briefly hit $0.43 on Friday.
Dogecoin was inspired by the popular Doge meme, of a Shiba Inu looking sideways at the camera with raised eyebrows. Interest in the coin has been bolstered by influencial figures such as the Tesla founder, Elon Musk, who has tweeted several dogecoin memes.
Fans of dogecoin have been pushing for its price to reach $1. Dogecoin’s rise is particularly notable as it was created to satirise the growth of altcoins by making the doge internet meme into a cryptocurrency.
There is no cap to its supply, unlike bitcoin, which has a hardwired limit of about 21m coins.
Nigel Green, the chief executive and founder of the deVere Group financial consultancy, compared dogecoin’s rally to the GameStop mania that gripped markets in January, when retail investors organised on Reddit launched a short squeeze on hedge funds.