Ethereum dropped to $1,462 in the early trading hours of today to reach its lowest point since January 2021, presenting yet another sign of a bear market.
ETH has been struggling since the start of the year, but this new low means it is now around 70% below the all-time high it hit in November. In the past 60 days alone, the leading altcoin has declined by more than 50%.
The fall in ETH value is likely due to several factors ranging from the UST/LUNA crash to the overall crypto market performance. Since the UST crash, the price of Ethereum has been down by close to half, and weekly candles for the last 10 weeks have been red.
But one factor that has played a significant role in the price drop is its postponed merger. For years, Ethereum promised to move to proof-of-stake. However, the switch, scheduled for June this year, was eventually postponed, with projections now targeting August through November.
The postponement of the Merge means that Ethereum users have to wait for more months before seeing any of the promised improvements on the network.
Like Ethereum, like the others
However, the fall in value is not unique to ETH. Rather, ETH is merely reflecting a broader market decline that has seen most major cryptocurrencies trading below half of their all-time highs.
In the last 24 hours, the crypto market cap had dropped by 7%, and it looks like it might drop below $1 trillion for the first time since January 2021.
Already, the market capitalization has lost around $2 trillion from its vault since breaking through the $3 trillion mark in November 2021. Bitcoin is trading at $27,000 after losing support at 29 000 dollars and is down 60% from its ATH.
Other top 10 digital assets by market cap equally have negative performance. Binance BNB is down 62.5% from ATH, Cardano ADA is down by 83%, DOGE by 91%, and SOL by 87%.
Analysts fear there will be a further decline in the value of these assets, with some expecting BTC to find support at around $25,000, but a sharp drop could see it drop to around $17,000.
The growing inflation and fear of further hikes in the interest rate are also part of the factors motivating this decline.
