Market Updates
4 years ago

Crypto Black Monday: Bitcoin Lost $700 on Rising COVID-19 Second Wave Fears

Jordan Lyanchev Sep 22, 2020 07:43
The cryptocurrency market, along with Wall Street and gold, has lost significant chunks of value following increasing COVID-19 confirmed cases and more restrictions in Europe.

The cryptocurrency market cap lost about $18 billion of value since yesterday. Bitcoin plummeted by nearly $700 to $10,300 at one point, while the altcoins have it worse with some vigorous double-digit drops.

Bitcoin Falls Hard

Just a few days ago, Bitcoin attempted to overcome the psychological $11,000 level on two occasions. However, the asset couldn’t succeed on either and remained trading just beneath $11,000.

Yesterday, though, the situation rapidly worsened as BTC began freefalling from about $10,990 to its daily low of $10,296 (on Binance). Since then, Bitcoin has recovered slightly and currently trades around $10,380, which is still a 5% decrease on a 24-hour scale.

BTC/USD. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin’s adverse developments resembled those of other financial markets. The price of gold went from its daily high of $1,960 per ounce to about $1,880 in a matter of hours as well. The precious metal has also regained some ground since then, and it trades above $1,900.

The three most prominent Wall Street stock market indexes also began yesterday’s trading session with significant decreases and closed in the red. The movements followed declining European stocks on the possibility of implementing more stringent restrictions due to rising COVID-19 confirmed cases.

Altcoins Bleed Out

As it typically happens after a vigorous price dip from Bitcoin, most alternative coins followed suit. Ethereum is 10% down since yesterday to $336. Ripple (-6%) fights to stay above $0.23.

Polkadot (-15%) and Binance Coin (-12%) are the most substantial losers from the top 10. Bitcoin Cash (-7%), Chainlink (-9%), Crypto.com Coin (-5.5%), and Litecoin (-9%) are also deep in the red.

As seen in the above chart, red dominates the entire market. From the lower-cap alts, Uniswap leads the way with a 30% drop, and UNI trades at $3.8. Just a few days ago, Uniswap’s recently launched governance token was at $7.

Elrond follows with a 21% decrease. NEO (-21%), Aragon (-20%), HedgeTrade (-18%), SushiSwap (-22%), Arweave (-18%), Kusama (-18%), Ren (-15%), and Balancer (-16.5%) are some of the tokens plummeting by double-digit percentages.

In total, the crypto market cap has dropped from yesterday’s peak at $349 billion to about $328.5 billion as of writing these lines.

Cryptocurrency Market Cap. Source: CoinMarketCap
SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)
LIMITED OFFER 2024 for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 BTC-USDT position on Bybit Exchange for free!


Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
Share This Article
Jordan Lyanchev

Jordan got into crypto in 2016 by trading and investing. He began writing about blockchain technology in 2017 and now serves as CryptoPotato's Assistant Editor-in-Chief. He has managed numerous crypto-related projects and is passionate about all things blockchain. Contact Jordan: LinkedIn