The cryptocurrency market experienced heightened volatility throughout the week, with Bitcoin’s price plunging by approximately 5% to reach $26,366.99, according to Coin Metrics. This decline followed a stunning fall late Thursday, when Bitcoin dropped to as low as $25,533.70.

The downward movement impacted the broader crypto market, with Ether, Binance coin, and Cardano’s ada token each witnessing a drop of about 3% on Friday. Ripple’s XRP recorded a 12% slide, while the Solana token experienced a loss of 5%.

Bitcoin’s performance for the week has been particularly concerning, with a decline of over 10%. This marks its seventh weekly loss in the past eight weeks and its worst week since mid-May. Coin Metrics, which measures a week in the cryptocurrency market, noted this decline from the 4:00 p.m. ET stock market close one Friday to the next.

Thursday saw consistent pressure on the cryptocurrency market, but a sharp drop occurred around 6 p.m. ET after a report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had written down the value of its Bitcoin holdings by $373 million in the past year and in 2021. The report also mentioned that SpaceX sold its cryptocurrency assets.

Darius Tabatabai, co-founder at decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol, commented, ‘The selloff appears to largely have been fear-induced on the back of headlines that SpaceX sold off Bitcoin assets.’ He added that the thin summer liquidity led to significant downward price gaps, resulting in cascading liquidations in derivatives markets and intensifying the drop, similar to previous panic selling episodes.

Tabatabai also noted that the current negative funding rates for perpetual futures could indicate bearish momentum for the time being. However, given the speed and intensity of the recent price movement, he mentioned that the situation could reverse swiftly.

Bitcoin’s performance during the third quarter has been lackluster, which is historically a weak period for the cryptocurrency. It has recorded a 13% decline for the quarter and a 9% drop for August. Despite recent market softness, Bitcoin has still managed to maintain a 60% increase in value over the course of 2023.