The major cryptocurrency hit a local low on Monday, falling to $38,250. BTC is trading at $38,750.
According to CoinGecko, the world's largest aggregator of virtual asset data, Bitcoin fell 3.2% in the past 24 hours. At the same time, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index returned to 23 points.
According to a Coinglass report, the current decline in digital gold has triggered a $300m liquidation of positions in the futures market.
Commenting on the high-profile decline of the major virtual asset, well-known crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe stressed that bitcoin was at a "decisive level". If it continues to lose value, the next major psychological marker for it will be $36,000.
Leading cryptocurrency altcoins have also been eager to take up the bitcoin's negative momentum. In the past 24 hours, Ethereum has fallen 4.3%, while Polkadot and XRP have dropped 7.9%.
Notably, in early April, Bitcoin quotations were below market forecasts amid negative developments on global markets, as well as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the past three weeks of the month, the exchange rate has already fallen by more than 10%.
Digital gold lost 1.5% in the first quarter of 2022. That said, March was a fairly benign period for the asset, which resulted in it reporting a 10% gain, strengthening for the second month in a row.
Bitcoin lost more than 16% in January and rose 12% during February.
In November 2021, bitcoin broke an all-time record, soaring above $69,000. Since then, the cryptocurrency has gone on a steady decline.
Bitcoin's value rose 1.6 times to $46,200 from $28,900 at the end of the year.
Experts at investment firm Arcane Research have previously stated that the correlation between the BTC and technology securities has reached its highest level since July 2020.
According to CoinShares' latest weekly report, institutional investors withdrew about $97 mln from cryptocurrency funds last week. Experts have recorded the outflow of funds for the second week in a row. CoinShares said the main reason for this trend is the reaction of market participants to the harsh minutes of the April meeting of the US Federal Reserve.
The unpredictable behaviour of the digital coin market is causing crypto-enthusiasts to make the most unexpected forecasts about its future. For example, experts at analyst firm Glassnode recently suggested that Bitcoin had already bottomed out, but was still unable to break through the range formed in February.
Another popular crypto analyst, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, has suggested that bitcoin could plunge to $30,000 by the end of the second quarter of this year, amid a permanent decline in the US Nasdaq Composite stock index.
Earlier, well-known trader Peter Brandt predicted the return of digital gold to a bullish trend closer to mid-2024. To prove his opinion, the analyst recalled that traditionally it took about 33 months after the end of the previous one for a new phase of strong growth in the BTC to begin.
Since the first cryptocurrency reached its historical record in November 2021, the next round of growth should take place in May 2024.
However, at the end of March, many analysts said that April was traditionally considered one of the best periods of the year for digital gold. In the past 11 years, for example, the coin has reported an increase in value in eight cases this month and a drop in only three.
