Bitcoin experiences sudden drop, falling by as much as 9% to slightly above $26,000 in late Thursday trading

Bitcoin experienced a significant decline on Thursday evening, with its value dropping by as much as 9% to a little over $26,000.

According to Coin Metrics data, the cryptocurrency’s most recent trading price stands at $26,593.68, representing a decline of over 8%.

This decline in bitcoin’s value occurred several hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX, under the leadership of Elon Musk, wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by $373 million in 2022 and 2021, and also sold off the virtual currency.

“This sell-off in bitcoin is one of the most severe we’ve witnessed in its history,” stated Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at Bitwise Asset Management, in an interview with CNBC. He suggested that the current speculation points to an Elon Musk/SpaceX-driven sell-off and characterized this abrupt decline as “short-sighted and mostly driven by retail investors.”

In 2022, Tesla, where Musk serves as CEO, disclosed that it had sold around 75% of its bitcoin holdings after investing $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

The billionaire executive has consistently shown his support for cryptocurrencies.

A recent study revealed that Musk’s mentions of specific altcoins on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, have positively influenced the prices of those digital currencies. Additionally, during the “The B-Word” conference in 2021, Musk stated, “If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump.”

Prior to this event, bitcoin had already been facing pressure after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its July policy meeting. In Thursday’s trading session, the cryptocurrency reached its lowest level in nearly two months.

-CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel and Sarah Min contributed to this story.