By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Shares of blockchain and crypto-linked companies fell Friday amid a widespread selloff in the markets triggered by the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus in South Africa.
Crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD)-investor MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) and miners like Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT) and Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) all traded around 4% lower, reflecting the reverses in cryptos.
ADRs of London-listed Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) were also down around 4%. Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) traded nearly 7% lower.
Last week, Austria and Slovakia went into fresh lockdowns. With Germany reporting some 75,000 cases Thursday, there are talks of a fresh clampdown happening in Europe’s largest economy as well. The European Commission is now proposing new travel rules while the U.K. has already suspended flights from six countries in Africa.
Bitcoin fell 7% to breach the $55,000 mark. The largest cryptocurrency has lost more than 21% of its value since hitting a new high of $68,990.6 on November 10.
Ethereum ETH/USD was down over 9% and so was Dogecoin DOGE/USD. Shiba Inu SHIB/USD was down 6% and Litecoin Litecoin 14%.