- Ether recorded its highest single-day plunge since May, 2021.
- The crypto fear and greed index, flashed "fear" and fell to its lowest level in a month.
- CoinDesk 20 index dropped nearly 20%.
Bitcoin (BTC) continued its downward slide during the Asian trading hours on Monday, plunging below $50,000.
The world's largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $49,267, before recovering slightly. Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, also sunk to lows of $2,166.
The CoinDesk 20 index, which tracks some of the most liquid non-stablecoin tokens, dropped nearly 20%.
Ether's near 25% fall is the worst single-day hit for the token since May 2021. The sell-off in ether was also catalyzed by rumors of crypto market maker Jump Trading's liquidating assets. Onchain sleuth spotonchain identified a wallet supposedly belonging to Jump Trading which transferred 17,576 ETH, worth over $46 million, to centralized exchanges, a sign of possible liquidation.
The bloodbath led to over $1 billion in liquidations in the crypto futures market, with ether registering over $350 million in liquidated bets, a rare oddity.
The panic selling in bitcoin and the overall crypto market has been triggered by a wider fall in the financial markets as the fears of global recession and rising tension in the Middle East has investors hitting the panic button.
This has led to the crypto fear and greed sentiment index flashing “fear,” and reaching its lowest level since early July. The index tracks volatility, prices, and social media data to indicate whether participants are fearful—usually a sign of local bottoms—or greedy, which marks market tops.
UPDATE (5 August, 2024): Adds additional details on market selloff and liquidations.
Edited by Omkar Godbole.
