On Friday, March 15, bitcoin showed a significant decline, retreating from above $73,000 to about $67,500 in the morning, as shown by CoinMarketCap data. This decrease of 7.72% occurred after the cryptocurrency set a new record at $73,803. «Bitcoin is famous for its volatility after reaching record highs,» said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index. Despite the current drop, the price of bitcoin has remained at the level of almost 60% higher for the year to date, partly due to the growth of crypto activity due to new spot exchange-traded funds and expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. Other cryptocurrencies have also been affected by the decline of bitcoin. Ethereum lost 7.36% over the day, trading at $3.679. Dogecoin showed the largest decline among major cryptocurrencies over the past 24 hours – by 11.59%. At the same time, Solana registered growth, increasing by 4.46% to $174. This drop occurred against the background of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Thursday. The annual producer price index (PPI) in the United States increased by 1.6% in February, which exceeded the January figure of 1% and market expectations of 1.1%. The core annual PPI index repeated the January growth of 2%, and on a monthly basis, the core index rose by 0.3%, exceeding analysts' forecast of 0.2%.
