Bitcoin crashes further as China warns Pelosi against visiting Taiwan

Bitcoin is down for a third day as jitters in the cryptocurrency market and rumours of a US speaker’s travel to Taiwan weigh on the market. Jitters in the global markets about intensifying US-China hostility are weighing on the cryptocurrency market.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the biggest digital token dropped as much as about 2%, reading below $23k. At one time, Ether lost 3.7%, while lesser coins like XRP and Cardano were also down.

The highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday. China has threatened consequences if the voyage takes place and claims the island as its own. Investors sold off risky assets as a result of the escalation risk.

• Bitcoin made a weekend surge toward $25,000 on the road to finishing up its largest monthly gain since October last year before the most recent gyrations. The rise has reinforced the idea that the worst of this year’s crypto crash is behind us; Bitcoin is down approximately 51%.
• Speculators appear to view Bitcoin as having a $25,000 ceiling and a $20,000 floor, according to bets made in the options markets. According to data gathered by Coinglass, this is due to a large number of active call and put contracts (also known as open interest) at their respective strike prices.
• Being riskier assets, bitcoin and the alternative coins suffered badly. Q2 ended as BTC’s worst trading quarter in over a decade with a massive decline of over 55%. June alone was the asset’s most violent month in over ten years. In it, BTC dumped from $30,000 to a multi-year low of $17,500, and even though it reclaimed some ground by the end, it still closed with a 37% decrease.