Over the last 24 hours the crypto market had its gains from a healthy past week wiped out to a sweeping clearance of $15 Billion from the Coin Market Cap in a single day. Bitcoin crashed by a whopping 12% from $7300 to $6421 as at the time of this report with altcoins including BCH(16%), EOS(14%), XMR(12%), ETH (15%), XRP(9%) and other top 100 coins dipping between 20%-40% off their past week prices.
This huge wipe out stunned a few investors and enthusiasts especially as many had viewed the past weeks steady growth as a trigger for a bull run; a few others had predicted the $6000 Bitcoin resistance level had been permanently ditched but volatile market sweeps have proved these assumptions wrong.
The sudden drop in coin values triggered a major sell off which saw the crypto market cap lose about $12 billion in an hour with a clear downtrend for most coins. The crypto market cap had hit a high of $240 billion but currently stands at $222 billion at this time.
Varying analysis and reports have linked this sweep to an alleged movement or withdrawal of over 100,000 BTC by a wallet associated with Silk Road (a platform likened to the dark web). Others have attributed this market dip to Wall Street firm; Goldman Sachs announcement that it had put on hold its decision to launch a crypto trading desk; the investment bank which had termed Bitcoin ‘a Bubble‘ in January says it has decided to postpone its crypto plans citing the ‘unavailability of clear regulations as it relates to cryptocurrencies’ in the U.S. terming crypto regulations as still a grey area at this time.
In contrast a few coins held their sway against this market effect; notably Bitcoin Diamond BCD (another hard fork of Bitcoin Core (BTC)) had risen by a huge 110% over the past 24 hours; just as BTG (Bitcoin Gold) shed a minimal 4.6% as at press time. In recent times BTC fortunes look to determine the fate of altcoin prices as they move in relative correlation.
Even as Goldman Sachs announcement is said to have triggered an immediate sell off by retail investors who seem to be hinged on bigger institutional presence as assurance; other negative FUD during the week have sure played their part. Crypto enthusiasts look set to see the final reaction of market prices to this news though its far raging effect was never expected.
Are the Bears still in control?
