As investors abandoned the cryptocurrency amid a bigger sell-off in risk assets, Bitcoin plummeted below $24,000 on Monday, its lowest level since December 2020, according to international media earlier in the day.
Over the weekend, the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other popular cryptocurrencies all fell, wiping out the modest gains gained the week before. In just 24 hours, the value of the global cryptocurrency market fell by 12%, falling to $970 billion.
A cryptocurrency loan company called Celsius has suspended customer withdrawals in the meanwhile, increasing worries about a potential worsening of the market’s turmoil.
The bitcoin market has lost more than $200 billion over the weekend and into Monday morning. For the first time since February 2021, according to CoinMarketCap estimates, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies fell below $1 trillion on Monday.
The largest cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin, momentarily dropped below $24,000 during today’s early trading hours before swiftly regaining that level, according to CoinDesk data.
BNB is down 22%, Cardano (ADA) is down 24%, XRP is down 18%, Solana (SOL) is down 31%, Dogecoin (DOGE) is down 28%, Polkadot (DOT) is down 28%, Avalanche (AVAX) is down 35%, and Polygon (MATIC) is down 25% during the past week.
The cryptocurrency market has been unstable all year after a significant bull run in 2020 and 2021, but the current Crypto Winter officially started in the first week of May when major currencies and stock markets throughout the world plunged.
Since its inception, Bitcoin has been promoted as a hedge against inflation, but in 2022 it underperformed, achieving the most unsettling level of correlation with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since 2020.
