Bitcoin Crashes In Crypto Meltdown

Bitcoin slumped as low as $20,835 overnight after panic tore through the cryptocurrency market yesterday.

 One of the sector’s biggest firms crypto lender Celsius Network teetered on the brink of collapse and on a day of more carnage for the industry, bitcoin crashed 20  to its lowest level for 18 months.

This morning at 8.30am, London time, bitcoin was trading at $22,673. The digital currency, the largest in the world, has lost two-thirds of its value since peaking at $68,000 in November last year.

Ethereum, the world’s second most valuable digital currency, fell another 30 per cent and is down 75 per cent since its peak.

The sell-off – fuelled by the threat of rising interest rates as central banks battle to tame runaway inflation – came as crypto lender Celsius Network stopped customers making withdrawals due to ‘extreme market conditions’.

The company’s own digital currency, known by its CEL ticker, plunged 55 per cent in the wake of the suspension as investors feared it could be on the brink of insolvency. 

As the chaos spread, crypto exchange Binance then blocked users from accessing their bitcoin holdings.

The meltdown has left millions nursing heavy losses.