At 5pm UTC Bitcoin was floating at $39,383, an unsurprising figure for most watchers this weekend, but in the last hour it plummeted sharply to $37,832, a drop of 4%. 

Bitcoin’s price has since recovered to its current price, $38,059, but combined with losses earlier in the day, Bitcoin’s price has fallen by 6.8% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

High-profile institutional investors like Anthony Scaramucci, whose SkyBridge Bitcoin Fund’s Zoom launch call crashed this week when over 6000 investors tried to join, and Michael Saylor, whose Bitcoin chat convinced Morgan Stanley to get in on the game in some capacity, are surely watching the figures anxiously.

BTC’s historic bull run has been great for the crypto market in general, which has appreciated the attention from new investors, many of whom are setting out into the new world for the first time in search of The Next Bitcoin. 

Consistent gains have been made across the board by altcoin favourite Ethereum, up 40% from last week and closing in on its all-time high. The New Year also bestowed approximately 50% increases to Bitcoin’s spinoffs Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. 

Whether crypto fans are riding the BTC hype or not, a sudden drop in BTC prices could have a calamitous effect on the rest of the market.