Bitcoin fell $ 42,000 on January 7, its lowest level since September 2021.

The largest digital currency is once down 4.9% to 41.008. please U.S. dollar, that’s 40% less than the record of almost VND 69,000 U.S. dollar set up on 10.11. Ethereum fell 8.3% to nearly 3,000 U.S. dollar, its lowest level since September 30th.

The decline came after the minutes of the Fed’s December meeting signaled that the central bank could hike rates earlier and faster than forecast and cut the balance sheet.

Bitcoin price is up 60% in the last 12 months and has outperformed other asset classes as digital currency is adopted by more institutions and bitcoin is viewed as an inflation hedge as well as a tool for diversifying investments.

Recently, however, Bitcoin has been falling steadily overall amid the volatility of the financial market. Rising inflation has led central banks around the world to tighten monetary policies, which threatens to undermine the abundant liquidity that has been the driving force behind asset prices for the past two years.

Chaos in Kazakhstan is having a negative impact on cryptocurrencies

When the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan fell into chaos this week, its Bitcoin mining hub was hit hard too. The price of the largest digital currency also weakened, falling to 42,000 U.S. dollar.

Almost a year ago, China banned all cryptocurrency miners, many of whom moved to neighboring Kazakhstan. Months after those miners built the mining infrastructure, however, the fuel price protests became the worst uprising Kazakhstan had seen in decades, and left cryptocurrency miners caught in the crossfire as well.

The Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has ordered the state telecommunications provider to shut down Internet services and thus stop Bitcoin mining in this country. Bitcoin miners in Kazakhstan are known to account for nearly 15% of all bitcoin mining activity in the world, said Kevin Zhang of the Foundry. This also has a negative impact on the Bitcoin price.