Bitcoin dips to $52K over recession fears

By Tuba Ongun

The price of bitcoin sank more than 14% to hover around $52,000 on Monday with growing fears of a US recession in the wake of softer-than-expected jobs data which prompted a rush to safe-haven assets.

Bitcoin saw its price dive to as low as $52,029 at 06.14 a.m. GMT, a daily loss of 14.40% while Ethereum, the world's largest altcoin by market cap, was trading at $2,283 for a daily plunge of 21.61%.

The value of the cryptocurrency market was around $1.83 trillion, dipping more than 15% for the day, according to CoinMarketCap, a digital asset price-tracking website.

The US economy added 114,000 jobs in July, bucking market estimates of 176,000, according to figures released by the Labor Department on Friday.

Data fueled worries that the central bank could have been too late to ease its monetary policy, pushing the US economy into a recession.