^{Pic: Deseret News}

As economies dip heralding a bear market the cryptocurrency bubble bursts as values slide in virtual currencies

What has tipped cryptocurrencies into a dramatic drop in value is almost certainly a mixture of reasons as experts scratch their heads over the collapse.

The Ukraine war, rising inflation in the UK, an increase in interest rates, oil prices over $100 a barrel, fears of a recession in the USA, the British economy hitting the rocks in the final month of the last quarter and the Chinese economy stalling due to the Shanghai Covid shutdown are all possible factors.

The most well-known one is Bitcoin and that is down in value by more than 10% with Ethereum down 20%, Luna 90% and Coinbase possibly worthless. Meanwhile on traditional markets the FTSE 100 is down 2.5% today (Thursday 12 May) while every major market from Europe to the USA and India and Japan were down by around the same figure.

The jitters suggest global fears of an economic slump with the first casualties being the so-called alternative investment market in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is the largest one with its value sliding from $25,400 to  $13,000, a drop of 45% so far this year.

Another factor behind the downward trends is a drop in household spending as inflation and rising oil and power prices begin to bite. Ebay, Amazon and Etsy are sharply down in value heralding fears of a return to the 1970s of stagflation: inflation, a cut in wages and an economic slump.

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