Bitcoin plunged to below $42,000 in a matter of minutes earlier this morning after previously reaching a two-year high.
The cryptocurrency’s price has plummeted by 7.3 per cent in the last day, reaching as low as $41,804 during the flash crash, according to CoinGecko.
This latest development erased the previous gains made in the past week with Bitcoin currently trading at $42,370.66.
Prior to Bitcoin crashing, the price of the cryptocurrency reached $45,000 in trading, for the first time in 21 months.
Bitcoin investors are anxiously awaiting a decision from the SEC
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Some $550million in crypto long positions have been liquidated in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGlass shows.
This included around $104million in Bitcoin longs within the space of just one hour yesterday.
However, Bitcoin was not the only cryptocurrency in the 10 top which saw significant drops in trading.
Notably, Ethereum trading fell by 8.8 per cent to just under $2,200 with Solana tumbling by over 15 per cent in the past day to under $100.
Furthermore, trading for XRP crashed by more than 10 per cent while Cardano plummeted by 14 per cent.
This latest price crash comes as crypto enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting a decision from the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regarding Bitcoin.
The regulator will determine whether to allow multiple spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications in a matter of days.
An ETF is a publicly traded investment fund that tracks the value of an underlying asset, which in this case would be Bitcoin.
More than $500million in crypto positions were liquidated
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Proponents of the ETF believe it will help investors to get exposure to Bitcoin without having to actually own their cryptocurrency.
In recent years, Bitcoin ETFs have been introduced in many places in the world, including Canada, Germany, Brazil and Dubai.
So far, the SEC has rejected every application made for a spot market Bitcoin ETF with the regulator citing the risk of potential market manipulation among crypto traders.
Over the summer, the SEC confirmed it needed more time to assess several spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
Among the applications to the regulator have been BlackRock, Wisdom Tree Funds, Invesco and Galaxy Digital, and Valkyrie Funds.
