El Salvador buys bitcoin after weekend crash

Bitcoin dropped by almost 5 percent on Monday, after the cryptocurrency’s price dipped this weekend. The price of bitcoin returned to what it was in early October, settling below $50,000.

On November 10, Bitcoin hit its all-time-high peak at around $69,000 and it was expected to increase by the end of the year. Since then, however, Bitcoin has fallen by 34 percent.

Bitcoin began to decline on Saturday, falling 22 percent from $53,980. It reached a low of $41,967 before recovering. On Monday it was trading at $48,600.

El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele tried to encourage people to buy the cryptocurrency as prices were dropping. On Friday, he tweeted that the country had acquired 150 bitcoins as the prices started to decrease.

El Salvador just bought the dip! 🇸🇻

150 coins at an average USD price of ~$48,670 🥳#Bitcoin🎄

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 4, 2021

Before this weekend’s purchase, El Salvador owned 1,220 bitcoins. With this recent purchase, the country now has around $62 million in Bitcoin.  

In September, El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal currency. Last Month, Bukele announced that the country plans to build a crypto-currency city at the base of a volcano.

Despite its volatility, the currency is far more valuable than it was five years ago when a single bitcoin was worth $700.

Along with Bitcoin, other altcoins also fell this weekend. On Saturday, Ethereum fell 17.4 percent, going from $4,600 on Friday to just above $4,000 on Monday. Similarly, the price of Solana, Cardano, BNB, Polkadot and Dogecoin also decreased.