Bitcoin plunges below $45,000 as cryptocurrencies take a fall.

The price of bitcoin took a major hit early Saturday, falling nearly $10,000 in roughly an hour to a temporary low of $42,000 before bouncing up to $47,000. The original cryptocurrency has fallen some $15,000 over the past 24 hours. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ether, fell around $1,100 over the same time period. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading just above the $48,000 mark.

Bitcoin reflected a broader drop in crypto markets.

The leading cryptocurrency reflected a broader drop in crypto markets as some cryptocurrencies fell more than 20% over the past 24 hours. Several altcoins seem to have suffered a sharp decline starting around 04:00 UTC Saturday. According to CoinGecko, the overall market cap is currently hovering around $2 trillion. Spot market selling seems to have driven the cryptocurrency lower before triggering huge stop losses in the derivative markets. According to Coinglass data, the price drop has triggered nearly $600 million worth of bitcoin futures positions in less than an hour.

Bitcoin sees the worst crash since late September.

Bitcoin witnessed its worst crash since late September when it dropped nearly 9% in an hour. The crash comes amid uncertainties caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) growing discomfort with high inflation. On Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell retired the word transitory from inflation discussion and said the central bank might consider. Some are using this bitcoin fall as an opportunity to “buy the dip.” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whose country holds bitcoin on its balance sheet and has purchased coins during previous dips, announced another purchase of 150 BTC for around $48,700 each.