Bitcoin falls by 20% in five days

Bitcoin is down by 9.53% in 24 hours following the cryptocurrency’s recent surge to record highs.

The price of of the cryptocurrency is now valued at just above $46,000, down from $51,600 a day before.

The cryptocurrency reached an all-time high of $58,000 on Sunday as a series of institutional investors put their weight behind the controversial blockchain technology.

Friday’s fall represents a 20% drop in value within the space of a week.

Michael Saylor, co-founder of Microstrategy, the software company, restated his view that the cryptocurrency was here to stay following his company’s announcement that it had taken its holdings to 90,531 bitcoins, valued at $4.5bn.

“The company now holds over 90,000 bitcoins, reaffirming our belief that bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, can serve as a dependable store of value,” he said.

“We will continue to pursue our strategy of acquiring bitcoin with excess cash and we may from time to time, subject to market conditions, issue debt or equity securities… with the objective of using the proceeds to purchase additional bitcoin.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates also waded into the debate recently, warning retail investors against investing in bitcoin. The billionaire cited Tesla CEO Elon Musk as someone who could afford to take risks by holding the cryptocurrency.

“Elon has tons of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down,” Gates said.

“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”

The news means more of the same for bitcoin’s rising yet volatile price. At the beginning of 2020 one bitcoin was valued at under $10,000.

Investment bank JP Morgan recently revealed a long-term price target of $146,000.