Bitcoin plunge wipes $500 billion from value in crypto rout

The crypto bubble that inflated Bitcoin’s value past $1 trillion and added billions to nonsense digital tokens overnight is bursting.

Bitcoin plunged almost 22% to $35,000, wiping out more than $500 billion in value from the coin’s peak market value. It has erased all the gains it clocked up following Tesla Inc.’s Feb. 8 announcement that it would use corporate cash to buy the asset and accept it as a form of payment for its vehicles. Ethereum, the second-biggest coin, sank more than 40%, while joke token Dogecoin lost 45%.

Bitcoin is now down more than 50% from its record of almost $65,000 set in April. Fueling the volatility is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose social-media utterances have whipsawed the crypto community.