London (AFP)

Bitcoin has lost more than 20% of its value in a week, causing some investors to wonder if the fever of cryptocurrency purchases for more than six months is starting to subside.

At around $ 45,000 on Tuesday, bitcoin has erased more than $ 12,000 since the start of the previous week, and has plunged more than 30% from its all-time high of $ 64,870 on April 14.

In the wake of bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have suffered: ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, dropped 14% in a week and now costs just under $ 3,400.

Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that has captured the attention of the general public in recent weeks, is also moving away from its all-time highs.

In all, the recent drop in prices has wiped out $ 400 billion from the market, which is now valued at just over $ 2,000 billion, according to the Coinbase site, which lists more than 9,000 cryptocurrencies.

For cryptocurrency enthusiasts, the manager is not hard to find: multi-billionaire Elon Musk, after extolling the merits of cryptocurrencies and investing part of Tesla's cash in bitcoin, now refuses bitcoin payments for his electric vehicles. , considering that they are too polluting.

"It has been a source of volatility in both directions, in our opinion, if there is a new hobby away from bitcoin, it would be better for everyone," plague analysts at the cryptocurrency firm ByteTree .

But bitcoin's woes didn't start with Elon Musk.

"The uptrend ran out of steam some time ago, even the recent good news has not allowed bitcoin to continue its rise," said Naeem Aslam, analyst at AvaTrade.

It remains to be seen whether the decline will continue.

A few years ago, bitcoin, even more volatile at the time, gained 1.375% in 2017 before falling almost 80% in 2018.

This volatility prompts the authorities to urge caution.

The US market regulator, the SEC, again called in early May "investors to understand that bitcoin is a very speculative investment" and to "define the level of risk they are willing to accept" before diving into the cryptocurrency market.

But not all observers are betting on a drop in prices: ByteTree analysts believe that we should be concerned if "the level of activity plunged on the bitcoin network, as it had been the case during the dips of 2014 and 2018 ", which is not the case for the moment.

© 2021 AFP