Bitcoin drops below $36,000 amid broader sell-off

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies plummeted around nine percent with a major selloff in technology companies' stocks in the US markets.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, sank to $35,867 early on Friday, its lowest level since January 27. 

This marked a 9.6 percent decline in price after Wednesday’s closing at $39,690.

Ethereum, the world's biggest altcoin by market value, also dove below $2,696, its lowest level since February 4. This was an 8.3 percent loss in price after closing Wednesday at $2,940.

Some altcoins saw their value tumble by up to 20 percent.

During that period, the cryptocurrency market saw $160 billion evaporating, as its market value dropped 8.8 percent to $1.65 trillion from $1.81 trillion in less than two days, according to data from the digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.

The decline in cryptos came after a major selloff in tech firms' stocks in the US exchanges late Thursday, such as Netflix and Amazon shares falling 7.6 percent apiece, while Facebook's parent firm Meta shares fell 6.7 percent.

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Tech selloff

The selloff in technology stocks came as investors are worried about the weak outlook of the US economy with fears of recession and the companies' disappointing first-quarter earnings results.

Although the US stock market indices rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ruled out 75 basis points of rate hikes in future meetings, indices gave up all those gains, and even some more, on Thursday.

The Dow Jones plummeted 1,063 points, or 3.1 percent, on Thursday for its worst single-day performance since 2020. The S&P 500 lost almost 3.6 percent, its second-worst day of the year.

The Nasdaq Composite fell almost 5 percent to end the day at 12,317.69, its lowest closing since November 2020.

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