Forget a bitcoin winter — a crypto ‘ice age’ might be coming as the Fed ends the easy-money era

Bitcoin tumbled to a six-month low below $38,000 on Friday. Bitcoin is down dramatically from its November peak of close to $69,000. Some investors are concerned that the market is going into a ‘crypto winter’ – a period when prices fall sharply and fail to recover for more than a year. But it could be worse than that, with the Fed hiking interest rates, and nagging questions about regulation and the technology. Central banks and governments have played a role in jacking up markets, according to Invesco’s Paul Jackson. The two speculative assets look a lot less attractive when returns on risk-free bonds are higher. Markets are now expecting four interest rate hikes in 2022. The resultant jump in bond yields . . .