Bitcoin Price Drops 3% on Brexit and Coronavirus Case in the UK

Bitcoin price (BTC) has been declining amid the recent coronavirus developments as today media reported that patients in the UK and Russia tested positive for the virus. The declining trend has been followed by major cryptocurrencies. 

Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360

In a day that will mark the departure of the United Kingdom (11 p.m. UTC) from the European Union and the confirmation of 2 cases of coronavirus virus infection in the UK, BTC/GBP pair has been declining by more than 3.7% since midnight.

Looking at the 15-minute timeframe, Bitcoin was trading near ‎£7,274 at midnight and started to decline steadily throughout the early morning.

BTC GBP 15-minute chart. Source: TradingView

Since 1:30 p.m., around the time most American and British news outlets reported on the confirmation of coronavirus, Bitcoin’s intraday price trend has been volatile. The digital asset reached a daily low of £7,015 around 2:30 p.m. with a slight recovery at £7,086 (around 4 p.m.). Shortly thereafter, the digital asset ended up declining again, nearly dropping to a daily low at 4:50 p.m.

BTC GBP 5-minute chart. Source: TradingView

As reported earlier by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin price declined after the coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S. and a similar effect seems to be happening in the BTC/GBP price as the health threat reaches a global presence. On the same page, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average Indexes are down by more than 1% for the day.

Following the same trend, the FTSE 100, the main stock index for companies in the UK, declined more than 1%. However, the GBP/USD exchange rate was up today, contradicting the global stock market trend and suggesting an opposite behavior to Bitcoin.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $255.7 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 66.2%. A handful of large-cap altcoins also mirrored Bitcoin’s losses. Most notably, Bitcoin SV (BSV) is down more than 8% and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) more than 5%. EOS is also down by more than 5%. On the winning side, NEM has gained more than 8% and Ontology (ONT) rallied 6%.