It’s a bear market in bitcoin and tech shares – but crypto carries the biggest risk

The important thing is to distinguish between companies that have solid demand for their products, notably Apple and Microsoft, and those that are mainly hype, writes Hamish McRae

The higher the inflation numbers, the weaker the response in crypto share prices (AP)

Own any bitcoin? If you do, you may be feeling a little richer now than you felt on Monday, but a whole heap poorer than you were at the beginning of the year. Bitcoin is just one extreme example of the vicious bear market in cryptocurrencies and high-tech stocks that have been running since November last year, and has gathered pace in the past few days.

Bitcoin is trading around $32,000, having dipped briefly below $30,000 in overnight trading on Monday night. That leaves it down by more than half its peak of nearly $68,000 in November, and down nearly one-third this year. But that is not extreme. The second most valuable crypto, Ethereum, had a rather good day yesterday – but is also down by one third on the year.

Similar declines are evident almost across the entire range of the high-tech giants of America. Uber is down 45 per cent so far this year, Facebook (or Meta Platforms as we now have to call it) down 42 per cent, Amazon 35 per cent, Tesla 34 per cent, and Google (now called Alphabet) is down 22 per cent.