Crypto carnage as quarter of market value wiped out: Bitcoin, Ethereum slump
The market has lost around half a trillion dollars in the last 24 hours as panic selling saw sharp declines for major digital currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum
The crypto market is finding itself engulfed in a bloodbath on Wednesday as a sharp selloff saw around a quarter of its entire value wiped out over the last 24 hours.
According to TradingView data, the crypto market’s total value stood at around US$1.57 trillion in late afternoon trading in London on Wednesday, a decline of around 23% since the same time yesterday despite partially recovering from an earlier plunge that saw its market cap touch around US$1.3 trillion.
READ: Bitcoin plunges below US$40,000 as Chinese crackdown triggers fresh selloff
The market’s biggest players all saw steep declines over the course of the day, with Bitcoin down 17% at US$36,148 while Ethereum dropped 24.7% to US$2,504.
Other notable cryptocurrencies were also seeing red, with Dogecoin slumping 25.3% to US$0.36 and Litecoin dropping 32.7% to US$202.6.
The crypto crash appeared to have been triggered by a warning from Chinese regulators earlier this morning that financial institutions and payment providers should not accept crypto as a payment method or offer services related to digital currencies.
Another possible culprit is Elon Musk and his electric car company (), which caused similar declines earlier this month by deciding to suspend payments for its products in Bitcoin after citing concerns about the environmental impact of the energy used in mining the crypto.
The turmoil has also spilled over into the shares of ‘crypto-adjacent’ companies on the equities market, with Tesla shares down 5.1% at US$548.23 in mid-morning trading in New York while crypto exchange platform () tumbled 10.4% to US$214.
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