After several weeks of trading sideways, bitcoin finally produced a volatile move but in a highly unfavorable fashion for the bulls.
The altcoins are also deep in the red today after the SEC’s latest lawsuit against a cryptocurrency company.
The primary cryptocurrency stood in a tight range at around $27,000 for the past few weeks, with only minor fluctuations above and below that level. This prompted several on-chain analysts to warn that there could be enhanced volatility right around the corner.
This finally occurred yesterday. Bitcoin had initiated another leg-up that drove it to $27,500, but the unsuccessful attempt pushed it back down to $27,000. As the situation resembled the scenario from May and early June, it all changed after the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced a lawsuit against Binance.
Being the largest cryptocurrency exchange, the development resulted in immediate price drops for BTC and the entire market. Bitcoin nosedived by over $1,500 in hours and plummeted to its lowest price position since mid-March.
The enhanced volatility resulted in roughly $300 million worth of liquidations, most of which were from long positions. Despite recovering a few hundred dollars since its multi-month low, BTC is still over 4% down on the day.
Its market capitalization has plunged below $500 billion, but its dominance over the alts stands at the same spot as yesterday at 45.8%.
As it typically happens when massive fluctuations reach BTC, the altcoins follow suit, and the past 24 hours are no different. Ethereum is down by just over 3% but has remained at inches above $1,800. The rest of the larger-cap alts are in a much worse situation.
Binance Coin, perhaps expectedly, has plummeted the most – 8% on a daily scale. As a result, BNB has dumped to its lowest price position in almost three months.
Ripple, Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana, Polygon, Litecoin, Avalanche, and Shiba Inu have all declined by somewhere between 5-7%.
Several mid-cap alts, such as APT, ICP, FIL, NEAR, and ALGO, have declined by up to 10% in a day.
The total crypto market cap saw over $50 billion gone at one point and is now under $1.1 trillion.
