The price of Bitcoin saw real volatility at the start of the new year with a high of $46,000 and a massive loss of nearly $5,000 yesterday.
Most altcoins were buried in the red as well, with the total crypto market cap falling by around $150 billion at some point yesterday.
BTC is falling hard
We won't find a quiet end to 2023 in 2024, at least for now. Bitcoin on Tuesday rose from $42,500 to a 21-month high of nearly $46,000 as the community braced for the potential approval of a spot BTC ETF in the US.
However, speculation arose a day later that the SEC might actually reject all current applications. Although there is little evidence that this can actually come to fruition, it has had a massive impact on the price of Bitcoin.
Within hours, the underlying cryptocurrency had fallen nearly $5,000 since the previous day's peak and was down to $41,500 (on Bitstamp). It left millions in liquidations and erased all recent gains. This all happened on Bitcoin's 15th birthday.
The asset rebounded in the following hours and rose to more than $43,000. However, it failed to regain this level decisively and is now standing around it.
Its market capitalization fell to $840 billion, but its dominance in altcoins jumped to 51.2% as most altcoins were phased out more difficult.
Alternative see red
When Bitcoin goes in any direction with enhanced volatility, most altcoins tend to follow suit. This was certainly the case yesterday, and the scene now is extremely painful as well.
Ethereum price fell more than 6% on a daily scale, and is just above $2,200. The price of BNB dropped from $330 to $300 in hours, but now stands above $320.
Ripple, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Polygon and Chainlink all fell further, with losses of up to 12% in the case of MATIC.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization was also at a nearly two-year high of $1.750 trillion before the massacre but has fallen by $160 billion. As of now, the metric is at $1.650 trillion on CMC, which means it is down $100 billion on a daily scale.
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