#Bitcoin plunges amid stock wordlwide market sell-off

Bitcoin tumbled to its lowest price in over a month on Monday as US stocks got slammed by a sharp selloff amid fears about the Chinese property market.

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency was trading below $43,800 mid-morning on Monday, down about 7.5 percent over the previous 24 hours.

Other cryptocurrencies also took hits, with Etherum tanking 8.4 percent to around $3,050 and Cardano falling 8.1 percent to $2.14, according to Coinbase data. 

Monday was the first time since early August that bitcoin went for below $44,000, according to Coinbase data. 

It’s unclear if Monday’s decline will be remembered as a temporary jolt or the beginning of another bitcoin pullback. The volatile cryptocurrency is far below its all-time high of nearly $65,000 this April but its still up more than 300 percent year-over-year. 

Leah Wald, CEO of crypto asset manager Valkyrie Investments, told CNBC that Monday’s sell-off part of a pattern “where traders cash in their riskier assets to cover margin calls or sit on the sidelines until markets calm down and they feel more comfortable going back into riskier positions.” 

“If ever bitcoin had the opportunity to establish itself as a safe haven or as digital gold, with U.S. companies also signaling their earnings calls are going to reveal poor results, now feels like the time,” she said.

While some crypto evangelists argue that cryptocurrencies should provide a safe haven from stock market turmoil, Monday’s slump accompanied a broader stock market drop. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently off 557 points, or 1.6 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 declined 1.5 percent. 

US stocks fell as investors evaluated fallout from a potential default of Chinese development giant Evergrande, which has raised concerns about a decline in the critical Chinese real estate sector and contributed to Hong Kong stocks plunging more than 3 percent Monday. 

But while cryptocurrencies were deep in the red Monday morning, gold continuous contracts were up nearly 0.5 percent, according to MarketWatch data.