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Another crisis signal was detected in the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are falling like free fall.

If the loss of the individual or company invested in it increases, there is a possibility that the ripple will continue in a chain.



Reporter Kim Yong-cheol analyzed.



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The price of Bitcoin, a representative cryptocurrency that has continued to decline, fell to the $17,700 level at one point in the morning of today (19th).



It's down 35% in the past week alone, down 74% from its November peak.



The price of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, which recorded $4,891 in November of last year, also fell to $936, and the price of other cryptocurrencies continued to plummet.



[Corey Clipston/Swann, Head of Bitcoin: The Fed is expected to continue raising rates through the end of the year.

That is putting tremendous pressure on Bitcoin.]



The price of cryptocurrencies, which plummeted last month due to the Korean coin Terra and Luna incidents, widened as the US raised the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points at once.



Coin withdrawals took place at US cryptocurrency lenders Celsius and Babel Finance due to the drop in cryptocurrency prices, and MicroStrategy, a US Nasdaq-listed company that borrowed money and invested 4 billion dollars in bitcoin, suffered from a lack of collateral. I did.



Cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows is considering bailout, and virtual currency investment companies are facing a series of bankruptcy crises.



[Corey Clifton / CEO of Swann Bitcoin: There are enormous economic risks around the world, including the Ukraine war.

Something big is going to happen around October.]



The market capitalization of virtual currencies around the world, which reached $3 trillion in November last year, is now $800 billion, $2.1 trillion in the past seven months, and our money is 270 trillion dollars. The circle has evaporated.



As the size of the virtual currency market is relatively smaller than that of the stock or real estate market, the analysis that it is still unlikely to lead to a financial crisis prevails.



However, there are concerns that a sharp drop in the price of virtual currency while interest rates are rising sharply will lead to a sharp drop in the stock prices of related companies, and if real estate prices also fall, it could be a trigger for a new financial crisis.



(Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho)