Bakkt Nightmare: Bitcoin Plunges by More Than $1,500 to $8,000

Bitcoin’s price has fallen by more than $1,000 in less than an hour. Its price is currently hovering above $8,500, and the cryptocurrency has declined by upwards of 13% in the past 24 hours. As of writing this, the current daily low was recorded at $7,998 on Bitstamp. This was the lowest price of Bitcoin since June 11 of this year.

Altcoins are also bleeding, as some such as EOS are down 30% against the USD. All of this comes only a day after the most anticipated event of the past year – the launch of the Bakkt Bitcoin futures trading platform.

Bitcoin Down $1,500 in Less Than an Hour

Bitcoin’s price has plunged, falling by upwards of $1,500 in less than an hour. The decline represents around 14 percent of its price at the time of this writing, but the question is whether the pain will stop.

Currently, Bitcoin is trading slightly above $8,450, as over $600 million worth of BTC has been liquidated on the popular margin trading exchange BitMEX.

As seen on the chart, the move was sudden and it caused Bitcoin’s market cap to fall to around $180 billion. Bitcoin’s dominance rate, however, is holding strong, and even increased slightly to 68.9%.

Altcoins Bleed Even More

What’s perhaps more interesting is the fact that altcoins are bleeding a lot heavier than Bitcoin. Not only did they fail to capitalize on this sudden drop, they decreased in value substantially.

The entire market is currently in the red, and some altcoins are in very big trouble against the USD.

But the drop isn’t just against the USD, as all of the large-cap altcoins’ Bitcoin markets are suffering as well. EOS, for example, is down about 17% against BTC, Bitcoin Cash is down 15%, Bitcoin SV is down 24%, and BNB is down about 4%. One of the biggest signs of the pressure on the market is the fact that Tether (USDT), the popular stablecoin, has become the fourth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

While it’s challenging to determine the exact reason for this drop, it’s safe to say that Bakkt’s underwhelming volume in its first two days of trading could be part of it. It will be interesting to see whether the selling is through or if there is more pain to come.