From bitcoin on down, most cryptocurrencies tanked Monday morning, as expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates more aggressively to combat unrelenting inflation ratcheted up.
Overall, the total crypto market cap has lost more than two-thirds of its value since peaking in November, according to CoinGecko, falling from $3 trillion at its apex to $971 billion early on Monday.
Bitcoin (BTC) lost 13.24% in the last 24 hours, coming in at $23,689.83 on Monday morning or at levels not seen since December 2020, according to Coinmarketcap, while ether (ETH) dropped 14.86% to $1,228.29.
The pressure in the crypto market, which began over the weekend, forced Celsius, a crypto lender, to halt withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on Sunday evening, in a move one industry insider called “risking insolvency.”
As of Monday morning, Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has halted bitcoin transactions, according to its founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao. In the past, Binance and other exchanges have halted trading during times of market volatility such as last month amidst the collapse of Terra’s stablecoin UST.
Here’s a roundup of other crypto movers.
Other major cryptocurrencies such as Binance’s BNB token (-12.5%) Cardano’s ADA token (-9.1%), XRP (9.1%), Polkadot’s DOT token (-10.39%), and the meme coin Shiba Inu (-9.3%) have pared losses slightly less than ether.
On the other hand, Avalanche’s AVAX token (-14.84%), Solana (15.5%), Tron (-16.46%), Dogecoin (-15.31%) and Polygon’s MATIC (-17.49%) are underperforming ether.
As for bitcoin, Yuya Hasegawa, a market analyst with Tokyo-based crypto exchange, Bitbank told Yahoo Finance over email, “the selling pressure will likely continue until we see the results of the FOMC meeting, it could go further down to the $20,000 psychological level.”
Bitcoin’s current lower level of support rests around its 200-week moving average of $22,400 per coin according to Hasegawa.
David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him @dshollers.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn.
,,,
