Investing.com – Bitcoin tumbled Wednesday toward the $10,000 key price level, casting doubt on its fledgling status as a safe haven as the popular crypto was caught up in the broad-based selloff in risk assets.
Bitcoin fell 6.43% to $10,248 from a session high of $10,894, taking its losses for the week so far to 11%. The popular crypto has followed the broader decline in U.S. equities in the wake of rise in U.S.-China trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty amid civil unrest in Hong Kong.
The deep losses are challenging arguments that bitcoin can serve as refuge during times of market turmoil.
In the coming days, or even hours, moves in bitcoin below $10,000 will be closely watched, with some suggesting a steeper decline below the key level dents the prospect of a bounce.
“Any such retracement (in bitcoin) from $12,916-$13,971 should be viewed as an opportunity to buy on weakness as long as it doesn’t retrace further than the $9,084 low,” Goldman Sachs said.
In the broader crypto market, smaller-cap cryptos were nursing much heavier losses relative to bitcoin as traders pulled billions of dollars from the market.
XRP slumped 12.88% to $0.26125, Ethereum was down 10.57% to $187.76 and Litecoin lost 8.59% to $77.20
The total crypto market cap, often used to gauge demand, fell to $287 billion from a peak of $297 billion a day earlier.