Bears continue to pressure the crypto market as bitcoin fell below $40,000 for the first time in two weeks. Altcoins are also in the red again, with Ethereum slipping below $2,800 and massive price drops from Solana, Avalanche, MATIC and others.
Bitcoin Struggles Around $40K
It was just three days ago when the landscape around the largest cryptocurrency seemed significantly more bullish. The asset had recovered from its latest dips to $42,000 and actually challenged $45,000, however, to no avail.
The bears returned to the scene and gradually pushed BTC south to around $44,000 before things got worse on Thursday and Friday.
In a matter of hours, bitcoin slid by around $4,000, thus breaking below the January 2021 ATH of $42,000. Initially, the coveted $40,000 mark maintained but BTC dumped below it hours later and went all the way down to $39,500 for the first time since early February.
Right now, bitcoin has recovered ground and is around $40,000. Nonetheless, its market capitalization fell to just over $750 billion, days after approaching $850 billion.
Altcoins on the Downfall
The alternative coins have largely mimicked BTC’s performance lately, meaning that most are deep in red today. Ethereum is a prime example. It stood above $3,200 earlier this week, but it dropped below $3,000 days later and now finds itself struggling beneath $2,800 following another 5% daily nosedive.
Solana, Avalanche, Shiba Inu and MATIC have declined by similar percentages since yesterday. This means SOL is trading at $90, AVAX at $85, SHIB at $0.000028, and MATIC at $1.6.
Binance Coin, Ripple, Cardano, Polkadot, and Dogecoin are also in the red on a daily scale.
With most small- and mid-cap alts also struggling, the total crypto market cap is somewhat expected to decline by another $50 billion since yesterday. The metric, which topped $2 trillion just days ago, is now at just over $1.8 trillion.
