Crypto Price Crash: Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum, Are Suddenly In Freefall
The crypto markets have suddenly gone into freefall this Wednesday as bitcoin and altcoin prices dumped across the board following a period of low volatility in recent weeks.
The sudden price falls come after speculation that a giant crypto hedge fund is ready to dump hundreds of millions of dollars of holdings. Bloomberg reports that Bitmex, the largest cryptocurrency exchange operator in the world, may soon sell $30 billion worth of bitcoin and other digital assets, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
The cryptocurrency market has taken a steep dive, losing over $100 billion of its value over the past 24 hours. According to data from cryptocurrency tracker Coinmarketcap, the total market cap fell from a high of $210 billion to a low of $196 billion today, wiping billions of dollars off 24-hour trade volume across the board.
When bitcoin broke below $47,000 for the first time since November 2018 on Tuesday, just before dropping to lows around $43,900 on Wednesday, there was a feeling that the worst of the bear market was behind the cryptocurrency world. But then the bottom fell out. Indeed, on Thursday bitcoin dropped to $43,869—its lowest level since November 2017—falling a further 12% during early Asian trading on Friday.
It is a dramatic turn of events, given the recent period of low volatility seen since early February. Indeed, in the last 24 hours, Binance Coin is down 5%, XRP is down 4.5%, EOS is down 4.5%, Tether’s USD also down 4.5% and ethereum and Bitcoin are each down 3%. The declines come after a week of strong gains for cryptocurrencies as bitcoin continued to rally towards $47,000.
Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum, Binance Coin (BNB), Solana, Cardano and XRP—the world’s six largest cryptocurrencies—all took a tumble over the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is down 5% on the day and has erased roughly $500 million of its market cap. The flagship cryptocurrency has dropped below $47,000 per token.
It is not entirely clear what has triggered the sudden price crash, with some reports suggesting Chinese trade volume has dropped from hours earlier and that traders en masse are moving fiat out of crypto exchanges.
Bitcoin (BTC) has tumbled 5.3% over the 24 hours to press time to $3,981.94, according to CoinMarketCap. Likewise, ethereum (ETH) has also seen its price sink 5% in the last 24 hours, bringing the altcoin’s market cap down to $36 billion.
The bitcoin price has been on a downward trajectory since early July 2018 and is currently trading below 2018 lows against a backdrop of rising external risks such as US interest rates and the ongoing trade war between the US and China. With the US dollar (USD) now at its highest level since 2003 – and set to rise even higher in 2019 – the bitcoin price will be an increasingly unattractive asset for traders looking to hedge against inflation and currency depreciation risk.
An almost complete meltdown has gripped the crypto markets as the sell-off continues after last week’s big drop. The total market capitalization of all 2,000+ cryptocurrencies is $290 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Bitcoin is down more than 7% at $43,615, Ethereum is around $3692 and Ripple’s XRP has lost over 5% to fall back below $0.30 at $0.285.
Crypto prices have suddenly gone into freefall following a period low volatility since the turn of the year.
The price of bitcoin fell to $43,600—its lowest level since November—after dropping an astonishing 16 percent in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, other major coins— including ethereum, Binance’s BNB , solana, cardano and XRP— have also fallen sharply losing between 3% and 5% and wiping billions of dollars of value from the combined $2.1 trillion crypto market.
