The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price has taken a nosedive since the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.com crypto exchange and its related trading company Alemada Research.

This came after news emerged that FTX was partly backed by its own utility token, FTX Token (CRYPTO: FTT), rather than good old-fashioned fiat currency. The resulting big slide in the value of FTT quickly led to a major liquidity crunch for FTX and sent crypto markets into a tailspin.

On 6 November, BTC was trading for US$21,162. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price stands at US$16,382. That's down 23% since FTX got into trouble and down 66% in 2022.

With that in mind, what might crypto investors expect next?

What could be next for the Bitcoin price?

The FTX meltdown could throw up some continuing headwinds for Bitcoin.

That's according to analysts at JPMorgan, who forecast the Bitcoin price could slide all the way to US$13,000 on the back of these new uncertainties.

According to the analysts (courtesy of Forbes):

What makes this new phase of crypto deleveraging induced by the apparent collapse of Alameda Research and FTX more problematic is that the number of entities with stronger balance sheets able to rescue those with low capital and high leverage is shrinking within the crypto ecosystem…

Given the size and interlinkages of both FTX and Alameda Research with other entities of the crypto ecosystem, including DeFi platforms, it looks likely that a new cascade of margin calls, deleveraging and crypto company/platform failures is starting similar to what we saw last May/June following the collapse of terra.

Hani Redha, a multi-asset portfolio manager at Pinebridge Investments, also doesn't believe the Bitcoin price will get any reprieve from institutional investors this time around.

"What's become clear is it will not find a home in institutional asset allocation," Redha said (quoted by Bloomberg).

"There was a period when it was being considered as a potential asset class that every investor should have in their strategic asset allocation and that's off the table entirely."

However, not all the experts are as bearish on the outlook for the Bitcoin price.

Akeel Qureshi, core contributor to Hubble protocol and Kamino Finance on the Solana blockchain, believes a recovery is on the horizon.

Qureshi said (quoted by Forbes), "The market is taking a hit, but crypto's volatility has historically led to shakeouts that ultimately strengthen the space in the long run."

Remember, whatever your own outlook may be for the Bitcoin price, never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The post The Bitcoin price has dumped 23% since the FTX collapse. Now what? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The world's original crypto is down 15% over the past 24 hours and down 22% since this time last week.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading for US$15,680 (AU$24,358). The last time the Bitcoin price was at this level was back on 9 November 2020, putting the token at two-year lows.

So, what the heck is going on?

Why are cryptos tumbling across the board?

The Bitcoin price, and indeed the price of most every top crypto, has been hit hard following liquidity issues at global crypto exchange FTX.com.

Co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX counts (or is counted) among the top five exchanges in the world.

The liquidity issues began over the weekend.

That's when Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance (the world's biggest crypto exchange) alleged that FTX was backed by a lot of virtual assets. Namely the FTX Token (CRYPTO: FTT), the utility token of the FTX exchange.

Zhao then said he was selling US$530 million of FTT, causing a wider run on the token and roiling crypto markets.

With FTX.com in deep water, Zhao had indicated that Binance would take over the exchange earlier in the week. However, he abandoned those plans yesterday.

The result?

Atop the Bitcoin price hitting two-year lows, FTT is down 61% overnight and down 91% since this time last week, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

What the experts are saying about the crypto rout and tumbling Bitcoin price

Commenting on the sharp sell-off, Ilan​ Solot, co‑head of digital assets at Marex Solutions said (courtesy of Bloomberg), "The market is now in full fear mode. Everyone's looking to see if there's more dominoes and what else needs to be liquidated."

Modular Asset Management's crypto hedge-fund manager Dan Liebau added, "Since I entered the crypto industry in 2016, very few periods tested its market infrastructure and participants like the last 24 hours did."

And Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto is Macro Now newsletter, said the big decline in the Bitcoin price, which normally tends to be more resilient in selloffs than most altcoins, could mean that institutional investors are exiting their positions.

According to the Acheson:

It's a sign that this is a blow to confidence in the industry as a whole, from the investor's point of view. From the industry's point of view, it's also a pretty steep blow, much more so than what we saw with Three Arrows Capital and with the Terra implosion. This is sitting harder.

Atop the FTX meltdown blow, cryptos could face additional headwinds if today's inflation data out of the United States (overnight Aussie time) comes in higher than hoped for.

Should inflation prove to still be running hot, it will likely mean more aggressive rate hikes from the US Fed in the months ahead.

And if we've learned anything in 2022, it's that the Bitcoin price doesn't respond well to fast-rising interest rates.

The post Why did the Bitcoin price just hit 2-year lows? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.