The sharp swings underscored the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies since their emergence in recent years, with factors such as a recent regulatory crackdown in China and various tweets by Elon Musk sending their value careening unpredictably.
Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Investments and a prominent crypto booster, in November predicted that the price of bitcoin could reach $500,000.
Michael Burry — a noted investor who came to fame betting against the housing market before the 2008 financial crisis and who was at the center of the 2015 movie “The Big Short” — has an even more dire take.
Bitcoin prices were already under pressure this spring when the Chinese Banking Association on May 18 ordered the country’s financial institutions to stop providing cryptocurrency services because of extreme volatility.
Musk, the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, has also seemingly influenced bitcoin this year.
But crypto prices slumped after Musk abruptly reversed course last month and declared that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin, citing the environmental impact of “mining” bitcoin.