Crypto’s bloody Sunday: BTC -17%, ETH -24%, DOGE -25%…
It has been a fairly rough month in the crypto world.
After prices topped out for a number of leading (and tertiary) cryptocurrencies in mid to late April, there has been a fairly steady downward trend in prices since. Crypto stalwart Bitcoin topped $63,000 on April 18, but by the beginning of this weekend it was sitting at just $37,000, down 41%.
Crypto’s #2 star, Ethereum, was above $4,000 as recently as May 14 but exited Friday at about $2,300, down 43% in a week’s time.
And while things seem to have stabilized somewhat over the weekend – unlike most other financial instruments, cryptos trade fairly freely and often fairly actively between Fridays and Mondays – that all started to break apart on Sunday.
After hovering most of Saturday in the $36,000-$38,000 range, Bitcoin (BTCUSD) has dropped 17% of its value Sunday and is now changing hands at about $31,200 (approximately 17:45 BST).
The once high flying Ethereum is doing even worse, being quoted on crypto exchanges at under $1,750, down more than 24% on the day.
Retail traders’ most recent darling Dogecoin is being traded at $0.25, down 25% for Sunday and off more than 63% since DOGE self acclaimed promoter Elon Musk made his much-watched Saturday Night Live appearance two weekends ago.
The web seems replete with explanations as to why crypto is crashing. However, the real answer is probably: nobody knows. Traders are just bailing out, in a similar fashion to the way they were blindly diving in on the way up. Greed being replaced by fear.
Is this just another dip ahead of an inevitable bounce for cryptos to reach ever loftier heights? Or, is the game of hot potato coming to a conclusion? Stay tuned, and keep your hands inside the ride at all times…