How Low Can It Go? Bitcoin Drops Below $19K

Bitcoin continued its descent Wednesday, falling below $19,000 for the first time since June.

Bitcoin—the largest cryptocurrency by market cap—has been on a pretty consistent decline since a brief uptick in mid-August. However, the drop below $19,000 Wednesday morning marks a new low since the cryptocurrency took a major tumble in June.

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Bitcoin is down nearly 5% for the week and almost 19% in the last 30 days.

Similarly, Ether continues to limp along. On Tuesday, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap hit $1,500—its lowest mark since July.

Ether is down nearly 8% in the last two weeks after seeing a slight resurgence in August. Those gains seemed due to Ethereum’s continued progress toward its merge later this month—a software transition from using proof-of-work to proof-of-stake to validate transactions.

However, Ether clearly has not kept that momentum, and one has to wonder if it will get it back after the merge is complete.

The drop in those two cryptocurrencies helped send the total crypto market cap below $1 trillion.

Continued drop

The declines must be concerning for crypto investors as the market still searches for the bottom. Earlier this year, declines were driven by obvious catalysts like the implosion of the Terra stablecoin and bankruptcies of crypto lenders including Celsius Network and Voyager Digital. It was reported Wednesday Voyager is now headed for the auction block.

However, the reason for more recent declines are less clear. One driver could be the rockiness in the stock markets globally, as crypto tends to parallel those markets.

Bitcoin and many cryptocurrencies hit all-time highs just last November—with Bitcoin flirting with $68,000.