Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Fall as U.S. President Donald Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19

Bitcoin (BTC) and virtual currencies are currently falling as U.S. President Donald J. Trump tests positive for Coronavirus. Cryptocurrencies are falling up to 17% in some cases after a negative day for traditional financial markets. The next hours could also be negative for both virtual currencies and stocks. 

Bitcoin Falls 3.5% To $10,500

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world has fallen 3.52% in the last 24 hours. The entire financial markets have been falling in recent weeks and virtual currencies are being affected by this. As it happened during most of this year, cryptocurrencies are being traded in a similar way to stocks. 

Now, the Bitcoin price is close to $10,500 with a market valuation of $194.22 billion. In addition to it, Ethereum (ETH) is registering 5.57% losses. ETH has now a price per coin of $343 and a market cap of $38.78 billion. 

XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Binance Coin (BNB), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Crypto.com Coin (CRO) are also falling between 3.84% and 8.6%. DOT, LINK and CRO are registering weekly losses as well. 

In a recent Tweet published by the official account of Donald J. Trump, he informed that he and his wife Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19. He informed they are now starting a quarantine and a recovery process. 

Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020

This could be very bearish for traditional financial markets and it has also created a sell-off in the cryptocurrency market. 

After the announcement on Twitter, Bitcoin fell by over 2% in just a few minutes; close to $300. Analysts consider that stock markets could be negatively affected by this situation and it could also increase the selling pressure in digital assets. 

While traditional financial markets were expected to reduce their volatility in the coming days before the presidential elections in the United States, we could see an increased number of trades in the coming hours and the next week. 

Many traders are now following the news rather than technicals to profit from market fluctuations that could be unexpected to technical traders. The main question is whether virtual currencies are going to remain closely related to traditional financial markets or if they will be traded independently from stocks. 

At the time of writing, European stocks opened lower after the information about Trump testing positive for COVID-19.