The cryptocurrency asset markets have been falling during the morning of January 21 as hundreds of billions of dollars have been wiped out from the total market capitalization.
The cryptocurrency markets are in the deep red this Friday morning as the overall market capitalization is down by almost 11% over the past 12 hours. For the first time since late September, the massive downturn has resulted in losses of about $233 billion, bringing the total market cap below $2 trillion.
According to CoinGecko, in the past 12 hours, the crypto market cap has fallen from nearly $2.15 trillion to a four-month low of $1.92 trillion.
The Crypto “Fear and Greed” Index has dropped to the “Extreme Fear” level of 19 as the market sentiment is increasingly turning bearish.
bitcoin at six-month low
Bitcoin is once again playing the digital Pied Piper, losing 7.1% over the past 24 hours. At press time, BTC was trading at $38,937, its lowest level since August 4, 2021.
In the past 12 hours, bitcoin fell by around $4,800 to an intraday low of nearly six months at $38,536. It has now broken the $40,000 support level and there are chances of further losses at this level.
According to CoinGecko, Ethereum is also in a world of pain at the moment, with a drop of 8.4% in the past 24 hours. ETH price has fallen to its lowest level since September 29, when it hit $2,809 a few hours ago. The asset is currently changing hands at $2,862 after a 12% drop over the past week.
There is a sea of red in high cap crypto assets at the moment except very few. Those taking the biggest hit include Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), and Avalanche (AVX), all dumping over 9%.
Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Polygon (MATIC), all declined between 7%-9%.
Any crypto left?
Apart from stablecoins, most of which are trading slightly above their pegs, only one coin in the top hundred is in the green at the moment. Bitfinex’s LEO token is the lone survivor of the crypto crash, gaining 2.7% to trade at $3.77 at the time of press.
Some industry observers are citing Russia’s proposed crypto ban as a catalyst for the sell-off. However, global stock markets have also taken a big hit this week indicating that something bigger is at play.