The price of Bitcoin briefly fell below $40,000 in the last hour, according to CoinMarketCap.
Although the price has since recovered to just over $40,400, Bitcoin’s price movements form part of a broader negative price run for the flagship cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has dropped by over 3% in the last 24 hours, and over 7% in the last week.
Starting 2022 at approximately $47,000, Bitcoin’s slow start to the year continues.
Bitcoin’s price woes
This is far from the first time Bitcoin’s price has dipped in 2022—in fact, it’s essentially been falling all year to date.
At the start of the year, when Bitcoin was at $47,000, the flagship cryptocurrency was hit by controversies from several directions. On January 2, 2022, political unrest began to engulf Kazakhstan, causing a nationwide shut down that, in turn, resulted in much of the Bitcoin mining industry to go offline.
Three days later, the United States Federal Reserve announced it may accelerate the timetable for increasing interest rates, which also contributed to Bitcoin’s sluggish start to the new year.
By January 24, 2022, Bitcoin hit its lowest 2022 point in the year to date $33,800. Since, the flagship cryptocurrency—as well as the rest of the industry—was thrust into the mainstream when Super Bowl 56 ads from FTX, Coinbase and others championed the industry in front of millions. However, that hasn’t been reflected in Bitcoin’s price, which remains on a broad, downward trend for the year so far.
