The news of the latest COVID variant is invoking a fresh wave of FUD among investors, with Bitcoin crashing down to $54k, and markets across the board slipping into the red.

Financial markets are moving into the red on Friday as news of a new COVID variant makes investors around the world worried.

According to a BBC report, this new variant was discovered in South Africa, and scientists have found it to be the most heavily mutated version so far.

Not much is clear about the variant’s properties yet, but what looks to be most worrying so far is that this version of COVID may be vaccine resistant due to the large number of mutations.

The Director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, said “This variant did surprise us, it has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected.”

If it indeed turns out to have strong immunity to the vaccine, then vaccination efforts so far may become ineffective, and nations around the world may look at enforcing new lockdowns.

Because of these fresh COVID concerns, investors have started to de-risk their holdings. This sell off has taken Bitcoin down to $54k.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Thanksgiving Day Data Reveals Peak Possible Within 30 Days

Here is a chart that shows the trend in the price of BTC over the past day:

As the above graph shows, Bitcoin is currently down 8% in the day so far, but earlier it went down to as low as $53.5k.

Almost $200 million in BTC was liquidated in the past 12 hours alone as traders are looking to catch the bottom with leveraged longs.

Just yesterday, Bitcoin’s price finally started to show some recovery from the decline that followed its new all-time high as the crypto broke past $59k once again.

Related Reading | JPMorgan Lists Ethereum As A Better Investment Than Bitcoin

The below chart highlights the trend in the price of the crypto over the past few days.

However, before this recovery could come to fruition, the news about the COVID variant arrived, and the price of the crypto once again crashed down.

At the moment, it’s unclear which direction Bitcoin might go in next. The coin may have already hit the bottom, but it’s possible that as more news about the variant surfaces, the coin may travel further down still.

166 +