By Alun John

HONG KONG: Monday’s close was at $49,000, 1.5% lower than the previous day as traders reacted to losses following a weekend that saw the value of the largest digital asset in the world lose over one-fifth of its value.

Bitcoin’s value and amount of bitcoin futures investment were back at their pre-October peak, just before the price spike that sent it to an all-time high of $69,000 in Nov. 10.

Matt Dibb (chief operating officer at Stackfunds) stated that “We expect the remainder of Q4 to be a difficult month”.

Coinglass, a crypto data platform that allows for the exchange of cryptocurrency data showed interest. The total amount of futures contracts owned by market participants at end of trading day was $16.5 billion. This compares with $23.5 billion on Thursday and $27 billion Nov 10.

The weekend drop in trading volume was attributed by traders to the large shift away from traditional riskier assets due to concerns over the new coronavirus omicron, as well as lower liquidity.

Investors who bought bitcoin margin on exchanges saw their positions close, leading to a series of selling. Coinglass reports that a variety of retail-oriented exchanges shut down more than $2B worth of long bitcoin positions last Saturday.

Some exchanges permit traders to bet 20x or more their initial investment. If a client makes a mistake, the exchange can liquidate their position.

The second largest cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin rival ether was hit by a bomb on Saturday. However, it was less severe.

Last traded at $4.112, which is a decrease from its Nov. 10, high of $4.868, but has steadily increased over its larger competitor.

The highest bitcoin price since May 2018 was 0.086 bitcoin.