For the third time in as many weeks, Bitcoin fell under $20,000 in late Wednesday trading, extending the June doldrums in crypto to the very end of the month.
The value of a Bitcoin hit $19,984 at around 9:24 p.m. EDT, according to CoinMarketCap, but resurfaced above $20,000 less than 20 minutes later. Bitcoin accounts for more than 42 percent of the overall crypto market.
The price of Bitcoin has dipped below $20,000 at least twice before this month: Tuesday evening and this morning, and more dramatically two weeks ago, when the leading cryptocurrency breached the much-watched threshold after wavering below $25,000 for five days.
In prior bear markets, Bitcoin had never before fallen below the prior bull run’s peak, which was $19,783.21 on Dec. 17. That barrier was broken on June 17.
Ethereum, which started the month at $1,960, dwindled as low as $897 on June 18, but has so far held above $1,000 for the last ten days.
The crypto market is a far cry from where it was at the end of 2020. On Dec. 16 of that year, $20,000 marked an all-time high. At the start of this year, an 11% drop in the value of Bitcoin to $42,000 was called a “brutal week.” Both Bitcoin and Ethereum were down over 50% in May.
The overall crypto market cap stands at $62 billion as of this writing. It briefly surpassed $3 trillion in November 2021.
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