AP
- Bitcoin plunged about 10% after it was revealed that SpaceX sold the cryptocurrency.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX wrote down the value of bitcoin it owns by $373 million.
- The recent jump in bond yields to 16-year highs has weighed on risk assets overall, including crypto.
The price of bitcoin plunged about 10% hours after it was revealed that Elon Musk's SpaceX sold the cryptocurrency.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that SpaceX, which first purchased bitcoin in 2021, wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by a total of $373 million in 2021 and 2022 and has sold the crypto.
The write-down coincides with a steep drop in bitcoin's price, which crashed in late 2021, setting off a "crypto winter" that extended through most of 2022.
Meanwhile, Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla made similar moves with bitcoin. Last year, the company disclosed that it sold most of its bitcoin holdings after acquiring it in 2021.
Following the WSJ report, which cited SpaceX financial documents, the price of bitcoin plunged about 8% to about $26,500, and has since further decline to about $26,200. The price of bitcoin is down 11% over the past week, trading at levels last seen in mid-June.
The jump in bond yields has also been weighing on risk assets overall, including crypto. On Thursday, the 10-year Treasury yield hit the highest level since 2007 amid indications the Federal Reserve remains hawkish on rates.
Prior to the recent slide, bitcoin had been trading in a sideways range for months as investors held out hope for the potential SEC approval of a spot bitcoin ETF, with applications from big-name financial institutions like BlackRock.
Fundstrat's Tom Lee has argued that a potential bitcoin ETF approval could send the cryptocurrency to new highs above the $100,000 level.
But the SEC has yet to show any indication that an approval is imminent, and more recently has delayed action on several bitcoin ETF applications.