Crypto crash: Gains wiped out as host of coins collapse
The prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies plummeted to 16-month lows yesterday in a major crash that wiped out the gains made during the past year’s bull market.
The past week has seen the price of Bitcoin drop by more than a fifth and the price of Ethereum drop by more than a quarter, as investors knocked billions out of the crypto market by selling off their digital assets.
The cost of a single Bitcoin dropped below $30,000 for the first time since December 2020, while the price of Ethereum sat just above $2,000 down from $2,750 a week before.
Major exchanges also halted trading of Terra (LUNA) after the coin lost more than 99 per cent of its value in a week.
The crash saw the price of Terra (LUNA) tumble from heights of more than $85 dollars a coin last Thursday, to lows of $0.016 yesterday.
Speaking to City A.M. crypto expert Richard Melkonian said: “the fundamentals of any market crash are the same – people are selling their assets.”
The developer said the current crash is the result of an “overall state of fear” amongst investors, as he warned that uncertainty in the wider economy is now influencing crypto markets.
However, Melkonian warned that as in previous crypto bear markets, big players may be “wiped out,” as he noted the world has not yet seen crypto “weather this kind of storm”.