Bitcoin fell to lows of $17,592 on June 18, dropping beneath $20,000 for the first time in more than 18 months following the Fed’s historic rate hike. At the time of publication, the price of bitcoin was last down 9.62% at $17,739, according to CoinMarketcap. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, fell nearly 10% to touch lows at $879 and traded at $898 at press time.
Alternative cryptocurrencies known as Altcoins suffered significant losses, with nearly all crypto assets trading in the red. Several large-cap altcoins recorded losses of between 5% and 15%. In addition, Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), XRP (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), and several altcoins have experienced significant pullbacks in the past 24 hours.
The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday, intensifying its fight against inflation. Powell hinted at another rate hike in July but cautioned that the 75 basis-point increase is an unusually high one, and doesn’t expect moves of such magnitude to be regular.
Investors’ sentiment also soured following the latest happenings in the crypto space, beginning with the Terra implosion, the uncertainty surrounding Singapore-based cryptocurrency fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and the recent Celsius withdrawal freeze. According to reports, Celsius is currently in communication with the SEC as investigations into the matter commence. Babel Finance also responded to a market downturn by temporarily freezing withdrawals and redemptions.
According to CoinGlass, there have been nearly $458 million in liquidations across the crypto market during the last 24 hours. Most of the liquidations ($234.44 million) occurred in the last twelve hours. Bitcoin led the liquidation pack at $217 million.
Popular investor and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently stated that he would not call a bottom in the crypto sector short of a major negative occurrence.
“You don’t get a bottom until you have an event,” O’Leary stated “In the crypto world, we need someone to go to zero.”
These types of “panic events” (mostly negative) define bottoms as markets capitulate before crawling out of their lows and slowly recovering, according to O’Leary. According to Magic Internet Money (MIM) Podcast host, Brad Mills, the crypto market still has “more room” to fall as Ethereum might touch $500 in the latest round of declines.
According to Intotheblock, the BTC price has dropped over 80% three times since 2011, and there are some parallels between past periods and the current market surrender. A drop in Bitcoin below $20,000 could trigger large liquidations of leveraged positions, putting more pressure on BTC, crypto executives say.
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