Bitcoin, Ethereum Post Heavy Losses for the Week as Crypto Market Continues Slump

Markets continued to slide on Friday—with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana all suffering double-digit seven-day losses. 

Bitcoin was trading for $47,985.20 at the time of writing, a 15% decline over the past week. The largest digital asset is down over 30% from its all-time high of $69,044.77 one month ago, per CoinGecko figures. 

Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, was also down 11.4% in seven days, trading for just over $4,000. 

The altcoin market also mostly took a beating. Solana, an Ethereum-competitor and the fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, was trading for $173, shedding 25% of its value in a week. 

Other altcoins that suffered heavy losses over the last seven days included Polkadot (down 23% in a week); Dogecoin (down 19%); Avalanche (down 21%). Almost all were down in the past day too. 

What could be causing the big dip in prices? Decrypt reported yesterday that after Chinese real estate developers Evergrande and Kaisa were unable to make scheduled U.S. dollar bond payments, stock prices dipped—and cryptocurrency followed suit due to the large number of institutional investors with skin in the game. 

Analyst and trader Alex Kruger told Decrypt today that it was also likely down to "year-end profit taking." "Think performance fees, bonuses, audits, wash sales, tax loss harvesting," he said. "It happens." 

Bitcoin Cash developer Chris Troutner said that it was likely down to this too. He added that "​​prices always seem to dip before the end of the year"—except for last year, an exceptional year when "institutional investors piled into cryptocurrency to get ahead of inflation."

In 2018 and 2019, Bitcoin's price did dip at the end of the year. This could be down to "people selling to buy presents," he told Decrypt. 

Whatever is causing the dip in prices, could a chilly crypto winter be around the corner?