Bitcoin slides as much as 11% to below $45,000 as the currency heads for its worst week since last March

Bitcoin slides as much as 11% to below $45,000 as the currency heads for its worst week since last March

The bitcoin price tumbled as much as 11% on Friday, putting the world's biggest cryptocurrency on track for its worst weekly fall since the brutal sell-off of March 2020.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell as low as $44,200 on Friday morning, before regaining some ground to stand 6% lower at $45,936 at 4.30 a.m. ET on the Coinbase exchange.

The cryptocurrency had lost around 20.3% for the week on Friday in European trading hours. That would be the biggest weekly loss since a 33.5% decline shook bitcoin in March last year.

More than $150 billion has been wiped off the market since bitcoin hit a record high of $58,000 on Sunday and its market capitalization jumped above $1 trillion.

Nonetheless, the digital currency remained around 55% higher for the year on Friday.

A number of factors have weighed on bitcoin this week. Elon Musk appeared to trigger the sell-off by tweeting on Saturday that bitcoin and Ethereum's cryptocurrency ether "seem high". Musk has been a major player in the recent bitcoin rally, so his words carry weight with many investors.

The drop in the bitcoin price has also coincided with a broader pullback from the more expensive parts of the financial markets, including tech stocks and government bonds.

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