Bitcoin drops 12%, falling below $24,000 as $200 billion wiped off crypto market over the weekend

Bitcoin tumbled below $24,000 on Monday, hitting its lowest level since December 2020 

The world’s largest cryptocurrency bitcoin briefly dropped below the $24,000 mark around 05:00 a.m. 

The cryptocurrency market capitalization fell below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since February 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

Bitcoin price continued its selloff as part of broader declines in cryptocurrencies after a sharp rise in US inflation triggered risk-off sentiment.  

The world’s largest digital token tumbled over 10% to $24,548, lowest in 18 months.  

The most popular crypto is down more than 43% so far this year (YTD), and is trading far below its record high of $69,000 it had hit in November last year. 

There is a high probability that bitcoin’s global adoption will grow significantly in the future and will hit 10% by 2030

The latest bitcoin and crypto sell-off was sparked by fears the Federal Reserve could put its "foot on the gas" in its fight to drive down inflation after the latest U.S. 

The bitcoin, ethereum and crypto market has been falling steadily over the last six months, crashing along with the stock market.

 Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world hike interest rates and begin to taper pandemic-era stimulus measures. The Fed this month started to the long process of shrinking its swollen $9 trillion balance sheet, known as quantitative tightening.