New Delhi: Bitcoin millionaires, around 30,000 in numbers worldwide, have been wiped in the past three months as the volatile cryptocurrency is witnessing a free fall.
Bitcoin, from $69,000 in November to nearly $36,000 (as of Thursday), witnessed drastic fall because of regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical unrest.
According to data acquired by financial news portal Finbold, between October and January, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding over $1 million has reduced by 28,186 (24.26 per cent).
In general, the Bitcoin-rich list has plunged over the past three months.
The report said, “Wallets holding over $100,000 have dropped 30.04 per cent from 505,711 to 353,763. The number of addresses with $1 million and above dropped 23.5 per cent from 105,820 to 80,945. Wallets holding over $10 million and above also registered a drop of 32.08 per cent from 10,319 to 7,008.”
According to a report in IANS, the drop in the Bitcoin rich list correlates with the asset’s volatility that has been heightened in recent weeks.
“A combination of factors such as regulatory scrutiny, turbulent markets, geopolitical unrest, and the Covid-19 pandemic combined with having an adverse effect on the asset’s performance. However, despite the volatile start to the year, a number of analysts continue to laud the asset as a hedge against rising inflation,” the report mentioned.
The number of liquidations has also increased in recently, with $372 million in long positions in the perpetual market across all exchanges being liquidated in only one day (January 22) because of the rapid fall in the value of Bitcoin since the start of the year.
“Given the anonymous nature of the world’s most valuable digital asset, it is difficult to identify the individuals who possess the addresses in question,” according to the report.
Bitcoin, along with other digital cryptocurrencies, has crashed to its lowest levels and the continuing meltdown has wiped out over $1 trillion from the global crypto market value.
The cryptocurrency crash came as the US Federal Reserve raised the possibility of boosting interest rates as soon as March and withdrawing stimulus from the market.