Banking giant Deutsche Bank has outlined the key reasons behind the precipitous crash of Bitcoin.
The financial behemoth has attributed the flagship cryptocurrency's rapid slide to a combination of macroeconomic factors, regulatory uncertainty and cryptocurrency investor behavior.
Five key reasons
Unsurprisingly, risk-off sentiment has been cited as the key reason behind Bitcoin's weakness. The leading cryptocurrency is currently trading like a tech stock instead of being an independent store of value.
The macro environment also appears to be particularly bleak for risk assets now that the odds of implementing a December rate cut have plunged. On Nov. 20, there was just a 22% chance of the Fed reducing the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points. The odds have now recovered to 75%, but this particular prediction market remains rather volatile. New York Fed President John Williams recently spoke in favor of loosening monetary policy.
On the regulatory front, Bitcoin (as well as the broader cryptocurrency sector) has been plagued by the Senate delaying its work on crypto legislation, including the much-talked-about CLARITY Act. Moreover, there are some disagreements between the Democrats and the Republicans regarding the content of the bill. If the bill does not see any traction soon, it might end up losing momentum and die.
There are also some sector-specific factors, such as institutional outflows and long-term holders taking profits.
Bitcoin joining gold
Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank predicted that Bitcoin could end up joining gold on central bank balance sheets.
The banking behemoth predicted that BTC's volatility would eventually decline due to growing institutional adoption.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team