Bitcoin's price isn't falling alone — commodities across the board in steep decline

It’s all too easy for the bitcoin community to lose sight of the bigger investment trends. For almost all of bitcoin’s history, is has existed in a bubble, completely removed from the forces that drive forex trends and commodity prices. As we mentioned yesterday, that era appears to be coming to an end. Bitcoin’s price is clearly falling — briefly falling to $380 today — but it has plenty of company in the plummet.

Gold? Down from $1,286 at the start of September to an eight-month low of $1,215 today. Silver? At the start of the month, one ounce sold for $19.47. Today it crashed to $17.86, the lowest spot price since July of 2010. Platinum? Down to the lowest price since December 2013. These are all real-world goods, with well-established values. And they’re bowing to the same market forces that are pushing bitcoin down.

It’s not just metals that are feeling the downward push. Corn futures? A slow decline since summer, pushing prices to levels last seen in 2010. Soybeans? Down. Wheat? In near freefall at the moment. Even the powerhouse of the modern age, light crude oil, is dropping like a stone.

Something big is happening, and for the first time in bitcoin’s five-year history, it’s having tangible impact on the price. As unnerving as the price movement is, it also indicates that bitcoin now shares a real connection with mainstream market forces. That money that is being siphoned out of bitcoin, likely in reaction to the Fed’s interest rate announcements and perhaps to fuel the Alibaba IPO happening today, is the same money that powers securities investments across the board. Bitcoin has officially joined the global finance game.

That’s neither a good or bad thing, but it does suggest strongly that major changes are coming as the investment world adds digital currency to its portfolio.