Crypto Markets Lost $70B Amid Binance-FTX Drama (Market Watch)

After several days of trading above the coveted $20,000 line, bitcoin took a turn for the worse and dropped below that level.

Most altcoins are also well in the red, led by FTT’s massive double-digit decline. Chainlink is the only exception in the green.

Bitcoin Dumps Below $20K

Last week was quite positive for the primary cryptocurrency, which jumped above $20,000 and went as high as $21,500 during the weekend, marking a multi-month peak. Even the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike didn’t push BTC below $20,000.

However, that happened hours ago. BTC stood around $21,000, but the bears took control of the market and dumped it by over $1,000 in minutes. In fact, bitcoin dropped all the way down to $19,400 earlier today.

Despite recovering a few hundred dollars since then, the asset still struggles beneath $20,000. This enhanced volatility brought pain for over-leveraged traders, with the total liquidations skyrocketing to almost $400 million on a daily scale.

Its market capitalization has gone to $380 billion, down by $20 billion daily, and its dominance over the alts is at 38.6%.

FTT Leads on the Way Down

CryptoPotato reported Changpeng Zhao’s decision to liquidate Binance’s entire stash of FTT tokens yesterday, as the executive had some issues with some recent information regarding the SBF-led exchange. This resulted in immediate price volatility for FTX’s native cryptocurrency.

It dropped to $22 yesterday, despite SBF’s response and assurance that FTX is doing just fine. However, the situation worsened today when the asset is down by roughly 20% more to way below $20.

It seems as this has impacted the entire market as red dominates the scene. Ethereum is down by 5% in a day and trades under $1,500. Cardano, MATIC, Polkadot, Tron, and OKB have declined by up to 5%.

More losses are evident from the likes of Ripple, Dogecoin, Solana, Shiba Inu, Avalanche, and others.

As such, it’s no wonder that the cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has shed $70 billion in a day and is down below $1 trillion.