Bitcoin breaks below $26,000, heads for worst week since November

Cryptocurrency prices remained nether unit to extremity the week.

Bitcoin was past little by 6% astatine $26,050.58, according to Coin Metrics, and wavered implicit $26,000 connected Friday pursuing a stunning autumn that began precocious Thursday.

The determination pulled the remainder of the crypto marketplace lower. Ether, Binance coin and Cardano's ada token were each little by astir 4% Friday. Ripple's XRP slid 12% and the Solana token mislaid 6%.

For the week, bitcoin is down much than 11.5% and connected gait for its seventh play nonaccomplishment successful the past 8 and its worst week since November. Coin Metrics measures a week successful crypto, which trades 24 hours a day, from the 4:00 p.m. ET banal marketplace adjacent 1 Friday to the next.

Crypto was nether unit passim Thursday but dropped sharply astir 6 p.m. ET., pursuing a study successful The Wall Street Journal that Elon Musk's SpaceX wrote down the worth of its bitcoin holdings by $373 cardinal past twelvemonth and successful 2021, and sold the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin heads for its worst week since May

"The selloff appears to mostly person been fear-induced connected the backmost of headlines that SpaceX sold disconnected Bitcoin assets," said Darius Tabatabai, co-founder astatine decentralized speech Vertex Protocol. "No impervious has emerged that happened, and bladed summertime liquidity led to prices gapping dramatically downward, causing cascading liquidations successful derivatives markets, further amplifying the driblet likewise to however we've seen selloffs hap successful panic selling episodes."

"Currently, we're seeing antagonistic backing rates for perpetual futures, which tin portend bearish momentum for the clip being, but successful this lawsuit it could precise good crook connected a dime, fixed the velocity and unit of the move," Tabatabai added.

Bitcoin has been stagnant for overmuch of the 3rd quarter, a historically anemic 1 for the cryptocurrency. It's present disconnected 14% for the 4th and astir 11% for August. Despite caller softness successful the marketplace adjacent up of this week's melodramatic slide, bitcoin is inactive up astir 56% successful 2023.

—CNBC's Nick Wells contributed reporting.