Home / Archive / Bitcoin Price Drops 4% as Cryptocurrency Market Struggles in Recovery

Bitcoin Price Drops 4% as Cryptocurrency Market Struggles in Recovery

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:04 PM
Joseph Young
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:04 PM

The price of bitcoin has dropped by 4 percent earlier today, on January 29, as the entire cryptocurrency market struggled to recover from its previous corrections. Other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Cardano, and Stellar have also fallen by small margins, in the 3 to 5 percent region.

Bitcoin’s Performance

The slump in the performance of bitcoin is not exclusive to bitcoin. Most of the cryptocurrencies in the market have struggled to record large gains since late December, when the valuation of the cryptocurrency market declined by more than 30 percent.

Bitcoin remains as one of the few major cryptocurrencies apart from Ethereum to have not recorded a 50 percent drop from its all-time high. Others, like Ripple and Bitcoin Cash, have declined by nearly 60 percent from their all-time highs established in early January.

Although the price trend of bitcoin suggests that the cryptocurrency has been performing poorly in terms of user activity and adoption, several leading conglomerates in the global finance sector have started to integrate bitcoin into their existing infrastructures.

Most recently, Robinhood, the US-based financial services company that allows individual investors to invest in the stock market, announced that it is launching a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, allowing investors in the traditional finance market to trade in the cryptocurrency sector.

Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading platform is expected to debut in February. But, more than 998,000 users have already signed up to gain early access to Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading platform. That is, nearly 10 percent of the user base of Coinbase.

This week, several hedge funds have also expressed their optimism towards the short-term trend of bitcoin, given the increase in long contracts in the bitcoin futures market. Previously, there were unconfirmed rumors in the market that whales or institutional investors in the finance sector sold massive amounts of bitcoin to cash out short contracts, in an attempt to deliberately lower the price of bitcoin.

Adoption by Retailers

Today, CCN.com reported that WeMakePrice, one of South Korea’s largest e-commerce platforms, have started to integrate 12 cryptocurrencies into their existing system in partnership with Bithumb. Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, and Qtum will soon be accepted by WeMakePrice, making them the first retailer in South Korea to accept cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency market is struggling to reflect the rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies by retailers and large-scale conglomerates, which bitcoin skeptic Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz described as the single most important factor for the growth of the cryptocurrency market.

“I personally believe that there is going to be a one or a few legitimate trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology. And that legitimacy and trust in terms of its consumer application will have to be legitimized by a brand and a brick and mortar environment, where the consumer has trust and confidence in the company that is providing the transaction,” Schultz said.

As major cryptocurrencies in the market continued to be adopted by major financial sectors and retailers, the valuation of the market could increase over the upcoming weeks.

Featured image from Shutterstock.