Bitcoin Slips Below $58,000 as Cryptocurrencies Quickly Collapse Thursday Afternoon

This time around, macroeconomic tensions can’t be blamed, as stocks surged again, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 erasing early August declines.

A few days of quiet price action came to a quick end during U.S. trading hours on Thursday afternoon, with cryptocurrencies suddenly falling and sending bitcoin (BTC) to its weakest level since the market panic in early August.

At press time, bitcoin was trading at $57,700, down about 3% from its price about an hour earlier. Other major cryptocurrencies saw sharper declines, including ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). The market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index was down 3% from 24 hours earlier.

The summer of 2024 was notable for two previous panic drops, the first of which occurred while the U.S. was enjoying the Fourth of July holiday. The catalyst for this sell-off was a move by a German government entity to begin selling the first 50,000 bitcoins seized as part of a criminal investigation. Today’s sell-off appears to have no clear trigger so far.