On Tuesday, bitcoin fell briefly below $30,000 for the first time in 10 months, while cryptocurrencies overall have lost nearly $800 billion in market value in the past month, according to data site CoinMarketCap, as investors fret about tightening monetary policy. Compared with the Fed's last tightening cycle, which began in 2016, cryptocurrency is a much bigger market, raising concerns about its interconnectivity with the rest of the financial system.
How big is the cryptocurrency market?
In November, the most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit an all-time high of more than $68,000, pushing the value of the cryptocurrency market to $3 trillion, according to CoinGecko. That figure was $1.51 trillion on Tuesday.