Bitcoin Leads Crypto Slide, Extending Weekend Losses

Bitcoin retreated below $21,000 on Monday after climbing to $22,000 last Friday. The cryptocurrency dropped 2.2% to $20,489, while Ether dipped 3.1% to $1,140 as of 4:00 pm ET Monday.

Major cryptoassets’ slide came after the Bloomberg MLIV Pulse survey indicated that 60% of respondents thought bitcoin would head lower to $10,000 while 40% saw it climbing to $30,000.

Bitcoin dropped for a fourth day, with no immediate obvious reason, falling by almost 2% to $20,506 on a daily scale. This development comes after recording Bitcoin’s biggest weekly gain since March. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, is also down roughly 2% for the day, sitting at $1,140.

The crypto market extended its slide on Monday after a weekend of losses. The most famous cryptocurrency market capitalization is $913 billion, a 2% decrease over the last day. Market participants and traders are awaiting the US Consumer Price Index release on Wednesday which has been indicating surging inflation in recent months. The CPI increased 8.6% in May, its highest annual rate in 40 years.

June’s rates could be even higher after Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the central bank will continue to hike rates aggressively with a similar 75 basis-point increase under consideration. The long-term average inflation rate is roughly 3.2%.

The report could shed light on the Fed’s next interest-rate move after it tightened policy by 0.75 percentage point in June, and an expanding economy could encourage a similar move later this month. Rising rates often depress the crypto market.

Friday’s jobs report, which appears good for the economy, showed that companies added 373,000 jobs in June as unemployment remained at 3.6%. The stock market was down late on Monday following the better-than-expected jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 90 points, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.7%.

Investors are also bracing for the start of quarterly corporate earnings results this week. The upcoming release of the US CPI report and the kickoff of the second quarter’s earnings season add to uncertainty in the crypto space.

Among the sectors hit hardest today was decentralized finance (DeFi). Uniswap’s token was down 8.17% to $5.83, while Maker’s token fell by 4.09% to $917.02. Aave’s token dropped 2.59% to $75.47. US equities also retreated, with the DJIA closing 0.5% lower at 31,173.84, while the S&P 500 dropped 1% and Nasdaq was down 2.3%.