Bitcoin takes battering as cryptocurrencies suffer sell-off amid inflation woes

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has tumbled more than 10 per cent, sliding below $25,000 for the first time since December 2020.

The start-of-week fall is the latest in a series of price crashes for Bitcoin, which has seen fallen by about 60 per cent in value over the last seven months.

Fellow cryptocurrency Ether also suffered a double-digit bruising, falling below $1,270 - its lowest level since January 2021.

Bitcoin, which is the world’s most actively traded cryptocurrency, has dropped almost 20 per cent since the end of last week.

Analysts said investors were giving cryptocurrencies the cold shoulder amid the wider economic and financial turmoil.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “As inflation proves to be an even trickier opponent to beat than expected, Bitcoin and Ether are continuing to get a severe bruising in the ring. They are prime victims of the flight away from risky assets as investors fret about spiralling consumer prices around the world.

“The worry is that inflation is becoming too hot to handle by central banks who will be forced to douse economies with jets of freezing water, in the form of much steeper interest rate rises, to get it under control. With the era of cheap money coming rapidly to an end, traders are becoming much more risk averse and turning their backs on crypto assets.”

She added: “[Bitcoin] is back down to levels it was in December 2020, before the jagged ascent to the heady heights reached in November 2021 of more than $68,000.”