Bitcoin fell through the $90,000 level overnight, weakened by sell pressure in equities as the crypto market awaits its next catalyst.
The price of bitcoin Tuesday fell 5% to $89,156.20, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it fell as low as $86,869.39.
The decline puts the blue chip coin almost 20% off its all-time high reached on President Donald Trump's inauguration day.
"Equities have faced a few difficult sessions over the last week, with top-performing stocks down many times the index, as markets grapple with increased uncertainty under the new administration," said Steven Lubka, head of private clients and family offices at Swan Bitcoin. "This pressure has spilled over into bitcoin and crypto markets."
The S&P 500 on Monday posted a three-day losing streak as it failed to recover from last week's sell-off, driven by concern over a slowing economy and sticky inflation.
"Ultimately, the lack of visible short-term catalysts and pressure from equities creates an environment for profit-taking and pressure from shorts," Lubka added.
Bitcoin's descent triggered a wave of long liquidations, which forces traders to sell their assets at market price to settle their debts. Centralized exchanged have seen $614.5 million in long liquidations in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass.
Bitcoin kicked off the year in rally mode, fueled by optimism about the positive changes the new Trump administration was expected to make for the crypto industry. However, since the President issued his widely anticipated executive order on crypto at the end of January – the contents of which were well received by the industry despite its tamer than hoped for language on a strategic bitcoin reserve – the market has had little to look forward to.
