To update prices and add a source

Singapore/London, February 5 (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell below $70,000 on Thursday as there were no signs that the slide in the world's largest cryptocurrency was abating.

Bitcoin fell 3.8 percent to $69,858, dropping below $70,000, its lowest level since November 2024 when Republican Donald Trump won the US presidential election and had announced during his campaign his intention to support digital currencies.

Bitcoin has already fallen by about eight percent during the week, bringing its losses since the beginning of this year to nearly 20 percent.

Ether fell by about two percent to $2,090, and is down about 30 percent since the beginning of the year.

The latest decline in cryptocurrencies came quickly and sharply, which analysts say resulted from the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve (the US central bank), due to expectations that he will pursue a policy of monetary tightening.

Manuel Villegas Franceschi of Julius Baer's Next Generation Research team said, "The market fears that Warsh will adopt a hardline approach. A shrinking balance sheet will not provide any support for cryptocurrencies."

Digital currencies are widely seen as beneficiaries of large balance sheets, as they tend to rise when the US central bank injects liquidity into money markets, which boosts speculative assets.

According to data from market tracker CoinGeco, the global cryptocurrency market has lost nearly $1.9 trillion in value since peaking at $4.379 trillion in early October, with a loss of about $800 billion in the last month alone.

Cryptocurrencies have faced difficulties for months since a sharp crash in October 2025 caused Bitcoin to plummet from its peak, after leveraged positions were liquidated.

This has led to a decline in investor interest in digital assets, and confidence in the sector remains fragile.

"We believe this broader decline is driven primarily by massive withdrawals from institutional exchange-traded funds (ETFs)," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note to clients. "These funds have seen outflows of billions of dollars every month since the October 2025 downturn."

They added that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in spot transactions in the United States recorded outflows of more than $3 billion in January, following outflows of about $2 billion and $7 billion in December and November, respectively.

Analysts said, "These continued sales, in our view, indicate that traditional investors are losing interest, and that general pessimism about cryptocurrencies is growing."