Bitcoin is falling back to earth. This morning, the cryptocurrency's price was nearly 25% lower than the all-time high set a few weeks ago, and reports that U.S. President Joe Biden plans to nearly double the capital gains tax might be partly responsible.
The cryptocurrency's value peaked at nearly $65,000 per coin on April 13 as the Coinbase trading platform prepared to go public. Its per-coin price fell as low as $47,467 this morning, according to Coindesk, before starting to rebound.
It's possible that Bitcoin's value would have fallen even without the Bloomberg report Thursday afternoon on President Biden's planned increase to the capital gains tax. The crypto market is fickle, and not even Bitcoin's price can be expected to rise forever.
Other cryptocurrencies have also declined in value today. Coindesk's data puts Ethereum's price down 10.5% in the last 24 hours, and it's fared better than other coins, some of which have seen their prices fall by as much as 24% at time of writing.
Even the beloved Dogecoin, returns for which rose 6,000% year-over-year just last week, has seen its per-coin price fall by roughly 20%. But at least Dogecoin is a meme rather than the cornerstone of an entire industry.
Does this mean the crypto boom is over? Probably not. The market isn't known for its stability, and efforts to capitalize on it will continue, despite these falling prices. And, of course, we doubt it'll be easier to find the best graphics cards today than it was yesterday.
But at least enthusiasts who missed out on the Bitcoin craze will be able to watch the cryptocurrency's price fall for a while instead of climbing up, up, up like it was before.
