Bloody Weekend: Bitcoin Plunges Toward $40K, $80B Erased From the Crypto Market Cap
After the relatively positive Saturday, the bears have returned to the market and pushed bitcoin south to below $41,000. The alternative coins have also suffered badly, with ETH dropping beneath $2,800.
Bitcoin Dumps Below $41K
It’s safe to say that the past few days didn’t go well for the primary cryptocurrency. The asset was performing well until Friday, when a new set of Chinese ban statements drove it south hard. In a matter of minutes, bitcoin plummeted from above $45,000 to below $41,000.
BTC used the Saturday to recover some ground and pushed above $43,000. However, this endeavor was short-lived as it retraced beneath that level almost immediately.
It traded around $42,000 for almost a day before the bears regained control once more minutes ago. This time, the cryptocurrency fell as low as $40,800. As of now, it has bounced off and recovered a few hundred dollars, but it’s still about 1.3% down on the day.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization had dropped beneath $800 billion again, but its dominance over the alts has neared 43% as most of them have suffered even more.
A Sea of Red on Altcoin Street
As mentioned above, the alternative coins are in even worse shape than their leader. Ethereum has lost another 3% of value since yesterday and is well below $2,800. Cardano, the only larger-cap altcoin in green yesterday, is down by 5% today to $2.17.
Ripple and Dogecoin have marked similar losses. Binance Coin, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, and Terra have dumped even more in a day. As a result, BNB sits at $320, SOL at $126, DOT ($27%), AVAX ($63), and LUNA ($34).
Aside from Celer Network, which has spiked by double digits once again, most other lower- and mid-cap alts have bled out. Huobi Token (-16%), Filecoin (-12%), Celo (-11%), Fantom (-11%), THORchain (-10%), and Arweave (-10%) are a few examples.
The crypto market cap is down by nearly $100 billion in a day and $200 billion since Friday to $1.8 trillion.