The Coin Market Cap top 10 listed digital assets are all trading in the red. Photo / 123RF
Bitcoin investors are feeling the pinch after the cryptocurrency hit its lowest point for months on Tuesday.
And as Bitcoin entered its fifth consecutive week of a price crash, experts are growing doubtful about its continued success.
Just past 8pm AEDT, Bitcoin was worth US$46,313 (NZ$68,668), a drop of seven per cent on the day before, according to CoinMarketCap.
It's a huge fall from grace for the top-ranked coin after hitting an all-time high of nearly US$69,000 in November.
That means the cryptocurrency has shed US$23,000 in value, or 33 per cent, in just several weeks.
Some investment experts think the latest price plunge signals the death knell for the volatile currency - and it's not just Bitcoin investors feeling the sting.
The Coin Market Cap top 10 listed digital assets are all trading in the red.
Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain and the second-largest overall, was down around 10 per cent over the past 24 hours.
Solana was down a whopping 12 per cent, while Cardano and Polkadot were also down by about 10 per cent.
Bitcoin's slide has dropped below a key level that has experts worried. It is now close to a 200-day moving average of about US$46,720.
Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, warned that this was "deadly" for bitcoin.
"The idea that as it matured, the volatility would ease, has not really materialised," he told Bloomberg.
"The volatility is deadly and its other supposed attributes, like a hedge against inflation, seems spurious."
Another economic forecaster said a 200-day moving average below US$46,000 was a "yellow flag" and indicated that Bitcoin will soon only be worth US$10,000 each if the slide continues.
Well-known investor Louis Navellier said earlier this month: "I would take a decline below US$46,000 (the 200-day moving average) to be a yellow flag and a decline below the spring low of US$28,500 to be a completed massive double top, which points to a decline to below US$10,000, which incidentally would match many of the multiple 80+ per cent declines in its storied history."
However, others think the cryptocurrency will bounce back - and given that Bitcoin started out trading at about US$0.08 back in 2010, it is still well up.
Demand for bonds may well stay strong, but there's a catch.