Bitcoin shed nearly a third of its value on Saturday. The reason was the combination of profit-taking and macro-economic concerns triggered nearly a billion dollars worth of selling across cryptocurrencies.

The plunge follows a volatile week for financial markets. Global equities and benchmark US bond yields tumbled on Friday after data showed US job growth slowed in November and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus kept investors on edge.

Bitcoin was 12 per cent down at 9.20 GMT at $47,495 (€41,980.83). It fell as low as $41,967.50 (€37,095.07) during the session, taking total losses for the day to 22 per cent.

By 22.01 GMT, it had rebounded slightly to $48,752.15 (€43,092.03) having lost $4,991.54 (€4,412.02) from its previous close.

The broad selloff in cryptocurrencies also saw Ether, the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain network, plunge more than 10 per cent.

It rebounded to losses of 3.61 per cent to $4,070.52 (€3,597.93), losing $152.28 (€134.60) from its previous close.