Musk has clipped the wings of Bitcoin

How long does forever last? Just over a year, if you're Elon Musk. Tesla has indicated in its quarterly report that it has sold three-quarters of its Bitcoins, citing uncertainty. The past selling does not change the market disposition, as all transactions have already been made. However, investor sentiment is perhaps the main driver in this market, where a mathematical algorithm governs issuance.

And this sentiment has been hit at a rather crucial moment. As a result of short-term investors' frustration, BTCUSD failed to break away from its 50-day moving average. The price stabilised at 23000 at the time of writing, hovering around this trendline. Failure to cross this line in a sharp move is a bearish signal. The closest development would be Bitcoin's return to the local support area at 19000.

Ethereum has lost 5.7% in the past 24 hours, to $1480. Leading altcoins have fallen even further, from -4% (Dogecoin) to 11% (Solana). Total crypto market capitalisation fell 3.6% to $1.03 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

According to CoinShares, capital inflows into crypto funds last week were $12.2m, with $14.8m coming into the funds on bitcoin shorts. Regular bitcoin products saw a net outflow of $2.6m.

The fall of the crypto market was caused by "greed, ignorance and misguided risk management", Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said. He noted the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which was the trigger for the subsequent problems of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital and Three Arrows Capital.

A bipartisan bill to regulate the crypto industry in the US could pass as a full-fledged document in 2023, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said. She said that some lawmakers would need more time to handle the topic. SEC chief Gary Gensler said the crisis in the crypto market would require a reworking of investor protection laws.