Bitcoin falls to its lowest on Monday, goes down to $39,558

Bitcoin fell to its lowest in over five months on Monday. It fell over 5%, its lowest since August 5, tumbling under the $40,000 level. The largest cryptocurrency fell as far as $39,558. It was last down 4.7%, more than 40% below a record high of $69,000 hit in November.

“Cryptocurrencies are likely to remain under pressure as the Fed reduces its liquidity injections," said Jay Hatfield, chief executive of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. “Bitcoin could end 2022 below $20,000."

The decline is the largest for a start of the year since at least 2012. Ether edged lower, while the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index dropped for a fourth day.

Bitcoin was created by an anonymous individual or group that went by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, sometime in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. It first began trading in 2009; however pricing information from during the early days is limited.

The Covid-19 pandemic helped Bitcoin break further into the mainstream as institutions and retail investors got involved with the crypto market and its ancillary projects. Now that the Federal Reserve has turned more hawkish, riskier assets like stocks and digital assets have suffered.

“Tighter Fed policy affects not only interest rates but the equity risk premium as the Fed withdraws funds from the capital markets. Riskier investments such as unprofitable tech, meme stocks and cryptocurrency are disproportionately affected relative to the rest of the market since those investments are approximately twice as volatile as the overall market so have double the risk premium as the average stock," said Hatfield.

Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Global Trading, said Bitcoin’s slump appears to be driven more so by short-term traders of the coin than long-term holders.