Bitcoin Crashes to 6-Week Lows as Crypto Markets Shed $60 Billion (Market Watch)

Yesterday’s brief price pump was short-lived as bitcoin reversed its trajectory and slumped below $19,000 to mark a multi-week low.

The alternative coins, many of which registered impressive increases yesterday, are also deep in the red today, with ETH erasing all recent gains.

Bitcoin Dumps Below $19K

Ever since bitcoin lost the coveted $20,000 line at the end of last month, the asset had remained relatively quiet, with a few unsuccessful attempts to reclaim that level.

The latest such example came yesterday when BTC pumped to a daily high of $20,300. However, it failed there and quickly returned beneath it.

The situation worsened in the past 18 hours when the cryptocurrency plunged by over $1,000. As a result, it dropped to a six-week low of just over $18,500 hours ago.

Despite adding a few hundred dollars since then, the asset still struggles below $19,000. As such, its market capitalization has declined to $360 billion, while its dominance over the alternative coins stands at 38.2%.

Altcoins Bleed Out Hard

Most altcoins were well in the green yesterday, especially those with any affiliation to Ethereum, as the hype around the Merge and the Bellatrix upgrade, pushed the second-largest crypto north to a multi-day high.

However, the landscape with the alts has changed quite drastically in the past 24 hours. ETH is now among the most substantial losers with a 9% daily dump. Consequently, the asset struggles to remain above $1,500.

Ethereum Classic, another massive gainer yesterday, is down by over 16% on a 24-hour scale to $34.

Binance Coin, Ripple, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and MATIC are also deep in the red now, with losses extending to up to 10% daily.

The lower- and mid-cap alts are in no better shape. As a result, the cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has seen $60 billion gone in a day, and the metric is down to $940 billion.