Bitcoin lost more than $ 1,000 in a few hours, and on Thursday it fell below $44,000 after the first mention of cryptocurrencies was made in the published minutes of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
Some heads of the regulator are concerned about the risks associated with trading cryptocurrencies, it was said in the protocols.
Members of the US Federal Reserve for the first time introduced information about the discussion of cryptocurrencies in their minutes of the last meeting, which are usually published with a delay of several weeks.
The publication of the minutes contains the results of the voting of 18 FOMC members and their comments on monetary policy, having a strong impact on the financial markets. Yesterday's document brought down US stock indexes, which led to today's stock sales in Asia.
Investors reacted negatively to the decision of the majority of Fed bankers about the upcoming reduction of the monthly bond repurchase program by $120 billion, until the end of 2021. The disappearance of this incentive will deprive speculators of access to "cheap" money, which in turn will reduce the volume of investments in risky instruments.
Earlier this week, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, Neil Kashkari, returned to criticizing cryptocurrencies at the annual Pacific North West Economic Region summit.
"I was more optimistic about cryptocurrencies and bitcoin 5-6 years ago. All that I have seen so far is 95% fraud. Thousands of garbage coins have been created. Some of them are obvious fraudulent financial pyramids that rob people," he said on Tuesday.
"I have not seen any other applications of bitcoin, other than the financing of illegal activities such as drugs and prostitution," Kashkari added. He also rejected the idea that bitcoin could be useful for US residents as a means of hedging inflation.
As the decline continues, anxiety is growing among the participants of the crypto market, as the first cryptocurrency failed to develop growth above $48,000 and is now heading south. Nevertheless, Glassnode experts still see signs of a possible occurrence of FOMO due to a significant outflow of bitcoins from crypto exchanges.