Market Watch: The Altcoins Christmas Bloodbath – $40 Billion Evaporated
Bitcoin’s recent rollercoaster continued in the past 24 hours with another $1,000 move before settling around $23,000. However, BTC’s dominance has spiked as the entire altcoin market has bled out, led by Ripple’s continuous drops.
Bitcoin’s 24H Wild Ride
The past several days have been particularly volatile for the primary cryptocurrency. Just a few days ago, BTC skyrocketed to a new all-time high of $24,300 before getting rejected and dumping by more than $2,000.
Bitcoin recovered most losses rather quickly and even attempted a few breakouts above $24,000 again. However, the bears intervened and didn’t allow any new records.
In the past 24 hours, BTC spiked from a low of $22,800 to an intraday high of around $24,000 once more. Another rejection followed that drove the asset beneath $23,000 hours later. Nevertheless, BTC has reclaimed some ground and currently trades around $23,000.
Should another price breakdown arrives, the technical indicators suggest that BTC could rely on the support levels situated at $22,700, $22,500, and $22,000.
Alternatively, the significant resistance line at $24,000 would be the first major obstacle if bitcoin resumes its recent bull run.
Alts Bleed Out, Market Cap Dives
It’s safe to say that the alternative coins have seen better days as most have been losing substantial chunks of value for a few consecutive days. Such is the case with Ripple’s XRP.
After the SEC brought charges against the payment processor, the native token XRP has been plummeting in value. In the past 24 hours, the asset has lost another 30% and struggles at $0.25.XRP has dropped by 60% since Saturday.
However, it seems that most altcoins feel the adverse effects. Ethereum has dropped by 6% to $575, Bitcoin Cash (-10%) trades at $275, Binance Coin (-7%) sits at $31, Polkadot (-4.5%) is well beneath $5, and Litecoin (-7%) struggles to stay above $100.
Apart from XRP, Chainlink and Cardano have also plummeted by double-digits in a day. LINK (-17%) fights to stay above $10, while ADA (-11%) is at $0.135.
Further declines are evident from numerous lower- and mid-cap alts. Band Protocol (-17%), Algorand (-15%), Yearn.Finance (-15%), Zcash (-15%), EOS (-14%), Neo (-14%), Dogecoin (-13%) are just a few.
Ultimately, the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrency assets has lost over $40 billion in a day and $60 billion since Sunday.
With BTC’s relatively moderate price decline, while the altcoins are deep in the red, bitcoin’s dominance over the market has surged to over 69%.
