On Sunday, Bitcoin, the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, dropped as much as 14% to $51,541, reversing much of the previous week’s gains.
As of 1320 GMT, bitcoin was down ten percent at $53,991, a whopping $12,000 below Wednesday’s record highs. Ether, a smaller rival coin connected to the Ethereum blockchain network, fell 10% to $2,101.
The selloff was attributed to a blackout in China’s Xinjiang region, which reportedly powers a lot of bitcoin mining.
People “may have sold on the news of the power outage in China and not the effect it actually had on the network,” said Luke Sully, CEO of digital asset treasury specialist Ledgermatic, in an email.
Despite the sharp drop, bitcoin is still up 89 percent in 2021, owing to its widespread adoption as an investment and a form of payment, as well as a flood of retail money into stocks, exchange-traded funds, and other risky assets.
