Cryptocurrency Bitcoin bleeding continued to drop by as much as 7.2% on Tuesday and was trading at $47,321, which is below the 200-day moving average, and most major cryptocurrencies followed with similar proportions.
According to Arab Net, the decline is likely to have accelerated as more than 165,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, equivalent to $524 million in digital assets, according to data from Coinglass, the cryptocurrency trading platform.
It comes as investors withdrew from some of the most speculative assets in global markets recently, worried that the waning tide of central bank stimulus could cause problems.
For his part, Miller Tabak + Co's chief market strategist, Matt Malley, said it was curious to see crypto sell off until the end of the year because many of them were winners in 2021 despite recent bouts of turmoil. It is believed that institutional investors may be behind this week's decline.
Bitcoin has largely moved in tandem with riskier assets like US stocks this year, although that pattern appears to be collapsing this month. The S&P 500 index of the largest companies is up about 5% so far in December, while Bitcoin has lost about 16% in its worst monthly performance since May.
Technical studies point to a turning point for Bitcoin after retreating from an all-time high of around $69,000 in November, trimming its year-to-date advance to nearly 70% from more than 100% at the peak.
For example, a study using the Bollinger bands indicators - a common way of looking at volatility - shows that a virtual currency touched the upper band last week but failed to close above it. For some, this indicates that Bitcoin may struggle to make gains in the short term.
