Bitcoin (BTC) is facing one of its worst days in recent memory amid a widespread sell-off across the global stock market.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to a six-month low of $49,000 in early exchanges, before buying support kicked the BTC/USD pair back to $51,600 at the time of writing.
It still marks an 11% fall for the pair, coinciding with a drastic market correction in global equities.
The Nasdaq 100, which is the US benchmark index for tech stock, is forecast to open as much as 1,000 points lower when trading commences this Monday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 saw its biggest one-day drop since 1987, effectively wiping out all of the index’s gains for the year.
In London, the FTSE 100 opened 170 lower at a five-month low on Monday.
Oil prices have slipped too, with Brent crude prices falling by 1% to US$76.04, taking it to near its lowest point this year.
Markets are being battered due to heightened recession fears in the US and an underwhelming earnings season for US megacap stocks.
For bitcoin, the sharp fall in spot prices means more than $900 million in long positions have been liquidated in the space of just 24 hours.