Bitcoin Price Plunges to Nearly $60,000 as Halving Nears

The price of Bitcoin is now trading for below $61,000 per coin, plunging to nearly $60,000 as the pre-halving bloodbath continues losses following a rough weekend.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $60,266 according to data from CoinGecko, down nearly 3% over the past 24 hours. Zooming out further, Bitcoin has shed 12% of its value over the past seven days.

The leading cryptocurrency's price is now 17% below the new all-time high of nearly $74,000 that it hit in March.

Bitcoin is about to undergo a major change to its code: the halving. The quadrennial event will slash miner rewards in half, thus reducing the amount of coins unloaded on the market—a feature that some Bitcoin believers say is bullish.

Ahead of the halving, the coin is experiencing heightened volatility—but not just because of its much talked-about event.

The sell-off comes as investors continue to cash out of the popular Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank needs to see more progress on the inflation front before cutting rates.

Last Friday, over $200 million in short positions were liquidated, too, leading to a heavier sell-off on Saturday after Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel. Liquidations surged over the course of the weekend, and Bitcoin's price suffered further as a result.

The rest of the crypto market isn't faring well, either: Every top 20 coin and token is down over the past 24 hours and week, with Toncoin being the lone exception, rising by 2% in the past day.

Edited by Andrew Hayward