The cryptocurrency market suffered a decline of close to 2% on Wednesday, resulting in a total value of $2.23 trillion. Bitcoin experienced a daily low of $60,760 per unit, while ether dropped to $2,944 per coin.
Significant Volatility Causes Cryptocurrency Market to Lose Over $400 Billion in a Week
Over the past week, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed substantial losses, with more than $400 billion wiped out from its overall worth. On Wednesday alone, bitcoin (BTC) saw a 2% decline and has experienced a 10.9% loss in value against the U.S. dollar in the past week.
Ether, on the other hand, has suffered even steeper declines, with a 2.4% drop today and a 14.3% decrease over the past seven days. Among the top ten cryptocurrencies, Solana (SOL) experienced the most significant decline, plummeting by 21.8% against the U.S. dollar.
Global trading volume in the cryptocurrency market has decreased by 25.9% compared to the previous day, amounting to $86.99 billion in global swaps over the last 24 hours. Despite the downturn, Bitcoin’s dominance in the market remains strong at 51.7%, with ether accounting for 15.3% of the market’s total capitalization.
Currently, the highest trading volumes are reported for BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, XRP, and BNB. The recent decline in the market led to bitcoin’s price dipping into the $60,760 range, resulting in a wave of liquidations totaling $39.11 million at the time of writing. Out of this, $16.09 million originated from BTC long positions, with an additional $8.66 million coming from ether long positions.
At 11:14 Eastern Time, BTC was unable to maintain the $61,000 mark.
The volatility has increased as the market anticipates Bitcoin’s fourth halving event. Following the price drop today, Bitcoin managed to stabilize slightly above $61,000 by 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. However, fifteen minutes later, BTC struggled to surpass the $61,000 mark. On April 16, analysts at QCP Capital pointed out growing market anxiety, highlighting a deeper downside skew in ether risk reversals, now at -20%.
The Singapore-based firm predicts that this nervous sentiment will continue due to escalating tensions from the Iran-Israel conflict and recent weaknesses in U.S. equities. “However, we continue to see consistent sizable demand for BTC and ETH calls for longer-term expiries (out to Mar 2025),” QCP added.
What are your thoughts on the ongoing downward trend in the crypto economy? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
