BITCOIN KEEPS ON LOSING GROUND AS INVESTORS ARE SHYING AWAY FROM RISKS

BITCOIN extended this month's losses trade yesterday as investors shied away from risk assets amid a more hawkish outlook for Federal Reserve policy tightening. The largest cryptocurrency slid as much as 3.3 percent to $38 223 (R594 899), the lowest since March 15, and down more than 20 percent from last month's high. It was little changed after paring the earlier loss. The second-biggest coin, Ether, slumped as much as 4.8 percent to $2 799, a level not seen since March 18. Dogecoin jumped as much as 7.4 percent amid reports that longtime backer Elon Musk is close to reaching an agreement to buy Twitter. Last year Musk took to promoting Dogecoin, a meme-coin made as a parody of cryptocurrencies, which help inflate the value of the token more than 14 000 percent from the start of 2021 to a high of $0.68 per token in May 2021. Earlier in January, Musk announced on Twitter that Dogecoin can be used to buy Tesla merchandise. It traded around $0.14 yesterday. Price charts are signalling further declines are likely.