Bitcoin Drops More Than 4% on Hawkish Fed Rhetoric, US Clampdown

Bitcoin fell the most in about a week as hawkish rhetoric from Federal Reserve officials and further signs of an aggressive US regulatory clampdown spread caution.

The largest digital token slid as much as 4.2% and was trading below $24,000 as of 7:55 a.m. Friday in Singapore. Smaller tokens such as Ether, Polkadot and Avalanche also retreated. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company behind TerraUSD in the latest regulatory step in the US. TerraUSD was a stablecoin whose collapse last year kicked off an industrywide crisis and a cascade of high-profile bankruptcies.  

Meanwhile, two of the Federal Reserve’s most hawkish policy makers signaled they may favor returning to bigger interest-rate hikes in the future. The comments sapped risk appetite across global markets and pushed up Treasury yields.