Cryptocurrency market capitalization falls below $1 trillion

The current rate of bitcoin fell below $19,000 and amounted to $18,700, which is the lowest since June 18, Report informs referring to CNBC TV channel.

The value of the entire cryptocurrency market also fell below $1 trillion as digital coins across the board saw a sell-off.

Ether, which has far outpaced bitcoin’s gains in recent months, was down more than 9% at $1,513.64.

Central banks around the world are battling rampant inflation with tightening monetary policy. The US Federal Reserve has undertaken a series of interest rate hikes totaling 2.25 percentage points. Markets are expecting further interest rate rises.

Policy tightening by the Fed has strengthened the US dollar which has weighed on risk assets. The 10-year US Treasury yield has also surged.

Bitcoin has traded in correlation to stocks and so if they fall, in general, so does the cryptocurrency.

“The macro environment also continues to prove difficult with the dollar continuing to put in highs. This impacts all risk assets as we can see,” Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international at crypto exchange Luno, told CNBC.

“If we see the dollar start to move back down, then we should be able to get risk assets such as bitcoin move back up again.”