Bitcoin — the popular cryptocurrency — had a massive drop in recent days, falling 20% in 24 hours, according to CNBC.
- The value of a single bitcoin — which reached levels of $64,829 in the middle of April — dropped to less than $37,000 by Wednesday, CNBC reports.
- Overall, this is the lowest Bitcoin has been at since February.
Why did Bitcoin drop in value?
Bitcoin likely suffered such a massive drop because it’s facing some negative news, CNBC reports. Specifically, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin because of environmental factors, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- Musk said in a tweet in the middle of May: “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”
- “Cryptocurrency is a good idea ... but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
Per CNBC, Musk’s announcement led to a $300 billion crash of the entire market of cryptocurrencies.
Similarly, Reuters reported that China added a new cryptocurrency ban, which led to cryptocurrencies falling in value.
Did Dogecoin drop, too?
Yes. Dogecoin had a major drop. According to CoinDesk, Dogecoin fell 42% in the last 24 hours to a price of $0.28 per coin. That’s a massive fall from the $0.70 value it had when Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” as I wrote for the Deseret News.