Bitcoin Drops as Wall Street Shares Tumble

On Monday, bitcoin fell to its lowest level since July 2021, falling in lockstep with sagging US stock markets on fears about the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening policy.

Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell to $30,331.28 for the fifth straight session. Bitcoin was last trading at $30,724, down 9.8%.

Bitcoin has lost over half its value since reaching an all-time high of $69,000 in November last year, falling 19 percent in May.

The S&P 500 index fell to its lowest level since April 2021 on Monday, owing to falls in mega-cap growth stocks. The Nasdaq was down more than 3%, while Apple shares were down more than 3% and were the Nasdaq and S&P 500's greatest drag.

"Volatility in the market arises from speculation," according to Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro. And since bitcoin is so speculative, its price, as well as that of the rest of the crypto market, is falling in tandem with the broader markets."

Hiro creates developer tools for Stacks, the bitcoin network that powers apps and smart contracts.

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency and the basis for the Ethereum blockchain, has dropped to its lowest level since late January.

"The most essential thing to do to prepare for bear markets is to keep your portfolio balanced and not overinvest in assets that you can't afford to wait out a crypto winter with," Miller added. "Holding long-term assets like bitcoin, or even increasing your stake if you're set up to do so, is the smartest thing you can do, as we've seen from every downturn ever."

Despite bitcoin's price decline, funds and products related to it received $45 million in inflows last week, according to a report issued on Monday by digital asset management Coinshares.

Investors took advantage of bitcoin's price falls, according to CoinShares investment manager James Butterfill.

According to the CoinShares report, the crypto industry as a whole received $40 million in inflows.

Other causes in bitcoin's decrease, according to Matt Dibb, chief operating officer of crypto platform Stack Funds, occurred during the weekend amid the crypto market's infamously low liquidity.

There were also concerns, according to Dibb, that the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST) would lose its linkage to the dollar.

Stablecoins are digital currencies that are linked to conventional assets, most often the US dollar.

UST is being keenly followed for its unusual method of maintaining a 1:1 dollar peg, as well as its creators' ambitions to construct a $10 billion bitcoin reserve to support the stablecoin, implying that UST volatility might possibly leak over into bitcoin markets.