Cryptocurrency may have begun as a maverick-dominated Wild West of investing, but it is now firmly entrenched in the financial mainstream. Despite recent volatility and regulatory crackdowns in China and elsewhere, institutional investors and large banks regard it as a serious asset.
Bitcoin fell to a monthly low below $39,000, and the crypto market cap fell by about $80 billion in a single day.
After a few days of consolidating above $40,000, bitcoin fell below that level, setting a new monthly low. Today’s altcoins are also in the red, with ETH dropping below $3,000 and even more significant price drops from Ripple, Solana, Cardano, Terra, and Polkadot.
Altcoins Enter the Red Sea
The altcoin market has been relatively quiet in recent days, with little to no significant price movement. However, the situation is largely different today.
With a price drop of nearly 5%, Ethereum leads a negative trend. As a consequence of this, the second-largest cryptocurrency has dropped below $3,000 for the third time this month.
Binance Coin is currently trading at around $400, down 3.5 percent on the day. BNB was close to $420 until yesterday.
Ripple (-6%), Solana (-5.5%), Cardano (-7%), Terra (-5.5%), Avalanche (-6%), Polkadot (-7%), Dogecoin (-6%), and Shiba Inu (-5.5%) have the most painful daily drops (-6 percent )
Even more losses can be seen in KNC (-11%), Filecoin (-11%), Waves (-10%), Zilliqa (-10%), EOS (-10%), STEPN (-10%), and other cryptocurrencies.
Finally, the crypto market cap has lost $80 billion, bringing the metric down to $1.8 trillion.
Bitcoin Marks Monthly Low
Following last week’s increased volatility, during which bitcoin dropped from $45,000 to around $40,000, the asset had settled around the latter. As previously reported over the weekend, BTC was trading just above $40,000, with a brief dip to $41,000 yesterday.
The bears, on the other hand, came out to play and pushed it south. As a result, bitcoin fell below $40,000 for the second time in ten days and continued to lose value.
This time, BTC fell to $38,600 (on Bitstamp), the asset’s lowest price since March 16. It is currently a few hundred dollars higher, but its market capitalization has dropped below $750 billion.