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Bitcoin slipped sharply on Thursday evening, tumbling by as much as 9% to just over $26,000.
The cryptocurrency traded at $26,839.24, reflecting a roughly 8% decline as of 7:20 p.m. ET.
The decline in bitcoin followed several hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX, which is helmed by Elon Musk, wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by a total of $373 million in 2022 and 2021, and that the space travel company had sold the virtual currency.
In 2022, Tesla, which Musk also leads as CEO, announced that it sold about 75% of its bitcoin holdings after investing $1.5 billion in the flagship cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin
The billionaire executive has historically been a vocal supporter of crypto.
A recent study found that Musk’s mentions of certain altcoins on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, has boosted the prices of those cryptocurrencies. Back in 2021, speaking at “The B-Word” conference, Musk had also said “If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump.”
—CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel and Sarah Min contributed to this story.