Bitcoin tumbles 5% after weekend battering

Traders said the weekend fall was connected to a broad moveaway from riskier assets in traditional markets over worries about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Bitcoin tumbled almost 5% on Monday as the start of the week offered little respite to the world's largest cryptocurrency after a bruising weekend where atone point it lost over a fifth of its value.

(Sign up to our Technology newsletter, Today's Cache, for insights on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, business and policy. Click to subscribe for free.)

The rout sent bitcoin's price and the amount invested in bitcoin futures back to where they were in early October, before a massive price surge that sent the token to an all-time high of $69,000 on Nov. 10.