OREANDA-NEWS  On Monday, February 2, bitcoin fell to a 10-month high due to a sell-off caused by unstable market sentiment. This was reported by Bloomberg.

The cryptocurrency lost 2.5 percent, falling to 74 thousand 541 dollars. Other cryptocurrencies also went down. In particular, Ether fell by 4 percent and Solana by 1.6 percent.

It is noted that in January, bitcoin fell in price by almost 11 percent, which was the fourth consecutive monthly drop — the longest series of losses since 2018. According to Caroline Morin, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a further drop in bitcoin to the region of 70 thousand dollars can seriously undermine confidence in this payment instrument in the long term.

In this regard, the agency recalled that in 2025, bitcoin rose to a record high above 126 thousand dollars. Since then, it has fallen in price by about 40 percent.

According to Oleg Vyugin, former first deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, the cryptocurrency market is seriously monopolized, so bitcoin is unlikely to be able to replace gold or become a full-fledged alternative to it in the coming years. However, in theory, bitcoin can catch up with gold in terms of capitalization.