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NEW DELHI: Central American country, El Salvador, bought 150 additional bitcoins (BTC) on Monday after the world’s oldest cryptocurrency slumped by nearly $4,000 to break below the $45,000 level amid sell-off in the global equity markets.
Shares in Asia and Europe fell, while the US equity futures traded in the red on China Evergrande Group’s debt woes.
Weakness in the traditional markets had a bearing on the cryptocurrency market as bitcoin slumped to as low as $44,487.10 from $48,242.38 on Monday. There was a mild recovery seen in the digital asset as it was trading 6.8% lower at $44,908.17 at around 4.15 pm IST, as per CoinGecko, a digital currency price and information data platform.
“China’s largest real estate company announced a $2 trillion dollar debt making global markets nervous. Bitcoin found resistance at $48,000 and started dropping towards $45,000 after the news hit the market. We are still in the short-term bull market as long bitcoin stay above $43,000. However, breaking down from this support, bitcoin can retest the $36,000 zone," said Hitesh Malviya, founder, itsblockchain.com, a blockchain and cryptocurrency publication.
El Salvador used the dip on Monday and bought 150 additional bitcoins. “We just bought the dip. 150 new coins! El Salvador now holds 700 coins," the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted.
The total worth of the BTC held by El Salvador is around $32 million.
Earlier this month, the nation had bought 150 BTC on the day it had become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. On that day also, bitcoin had cracked more than 10% within an hour to drop near the $43,000 level on mass liquidation.
El Salvador has been rolling out a network of 200 bitcoin ATMs and building a chain of stylish, Chivo-brand kiosks with staff who will introduce consumers to bitcoin at plazas around the country.
However, the adoption of bitcoin has not been smooth with the country witnessing protests against the introduction of bitcoin as its legal tender.
Meanwhile, other crypto assets also traded on a weaker footing on Monday with ether, cardano, Solana and polygon falling up to 14%. After steadily recovering since hit the sub-$30,000 level in July, bitcoin along with other cryptocurrencies have been witnessing major sell-off after each up move.
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