The first cryptocurrency ever created and the most valuable digital coin available today – Bitcoin – has dropped in value to under US$40,000 per coin from highs as much as US$67,500 in November 2021.

This also marks the lowest performance of the digital coin at the start of the year since the dawn of cryptocurrency.

With prices hovering around US$39,774 per unit, Bitcoin reportedly lost 14 per cent of its overall value in 2022 – which by itself is a 6 per cent drop from its value in December 2021.

Crypto experts also mark this decline as the largest at the beginning of any year since 2012, when cryptocurrency gained international attention as a potential medium of unregulated trade.

Cryptocurrency Ether also fell this week, while the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell for four consecutive days (as observed on January 10).

Jay Hatfield, the CEO of Inverstructure Capital Advisors, said that pressure on digital currencies is likely to continue with the Federal Reserve (the US Central Bank) reducing the amount of cash being pumped into the financial system.

He added that the price of Bitcoin is expected to fall to less than US$20,000 by the end of 2022.

Despite the drop, there is still optimism. Guido Buehler, the CEO of Swiss Bank – Seba, was reportedly quoted by CNBC as saying that the price of Bitcoin could nearly double to US$75,000 this year.

“We believe the price is going up,” the CEO told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, today [January 12], before asserting that Bitcoin may even hit record highs; however, not without the volatility that is associated with digital currencies.