Bitcoin dumps on news of successful COVID-19 vaccine trials

Bitcoin (BTC) fell sharply in price this morning as pharmaceutical company Pfizer, in collaboration with biotech company BioNTech, announced a breakthrough in its COVID-19 vaccine.

Bitcoin fell approximately $1,000, over 6%, between 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm UTC today on the vaccine news, from $15,800 down to a daily low near $14,815, based on TradingView data. Crypto’s pioneer asset bounced slightly by the time of publication, sitting near $14,908. 

Earlier this morning, Pfizer publicized a statement claiming its COVID-19 vaccine has shown to be roughly 90% effective. The company said its numbers come after testing 43,538 subjects. The vaccine, however, still awaits final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration: 

“Submission for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) planned for soon after the required safety milestone is achieved, which is currently expected to occur in the third week of November.”

Bolstering Bitcoin’s narrative as a hedge or noncorrelated asset, traditional financial markets rose as various media outlets covered the COVID-19 vaccine news. The S&P 500 bolted up almost 4% in price at market open this morning. Meanwhile, gold, another store-of-value asset, has fallen more than 5% over the last several hours, suffering continued carnage as of publication time. 

In addition to gold and BTC, a number of businesses that posted notable gains during pandemic lockdowns saw their company valuations fall today. Video conferencing platform Zoom watched its stock decline by approximately 19%, while Netflix fell almost 10%. Even e-commerce giant Amazon dropped more than 5%. 

Many expect Bitcoin to rebound at some point, just as it did after the original COVID-19 pandemic news in March.