Bitcoin Price Drops. Altcoins Are Holding Up Better.
Text size
Bitcoin has fallen below the $30,000 barrier this month and failed to recoup those levels
Dreamstime
Bitcoin was falling on Friday and on track to end the week at its lowest levels in more than a month.
Bitcoin
traded at $29.206 early on Friday, down 1.0% over the preceding 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency gave up gains initially made after the Federal Reserve’s rate decision on Thursday, as other risk assets also fell.
Bitcoin is on track to finish the week at its lowest levels since late June, after falling below the psychologically important level of $30,000 earlier this week.
“Unlike prior breakdowns where altcoins sustained heavier losses than Bitcoin, they stood firm this time, backed by Ethereum and other significant alts,” said Rachel Lin, the CEO of trading platform SynFutures.
Other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin were mixed on Friday. Ether—the second-largest crypto—fell 0.6% to $1,866 but is broadly flat in July so far. Smaller tokens, or altcoins, were diverging, with Cardano rising 0.3% and Polygon losing 2.8%.
Dogecoin
was down 3.5%, surrendering gains from earlier in the week on hopes that Elon Musk might opt to use the cryptocurrency in his plans to expand the X social-media network—the new name for Twitter—as a financial platform.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com