The Bitcoin and crypto sell-off is on, even as the latest low price around the $31k mark stabilized over the past 24 hours. There was no ho-hum rebound though, as many usually expect when investors buy the dip after an especially volatile period.
And it’s not just cryptos crashing. NFTs, one thought to have a disconnect with crypto price movements, see themselves being dragged down by pessimistic economic outlooks.
What happened?
The selloff began soon after the US Federal Reserve announced a series of interest rate increases, starting with 50 basis points. Global panic sprung over inflation and fears of a potential recession.
Since sent the global crypto market into a tailspin and Bitcoin’s cap shrunk to $1.54 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data on Monday. That market cap is now just $1.38 trillion, a 6.44% decrease in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin is down nearly 55% from last November’s all-time high around the 70K ceiling, and 2/5th of crypto holders are in the red with their investments, new data from Glassnode revealed.
Bitcoin seems to be tracking the falling Nasdaq tech stocks which closed down 4.3% on Monday.
That helped dispel the argument that cryptocurrency functions as an inflation hedge.
Glassnode mentioned the fact that crypto sell-offs were accompanied by “urgent transactions” to increase the speed of offloading their wallets from crypto even at the cost of paying extra fees which reached 3.07 bitcoin over the last week or so, the largest ever recorded in its dataset.
Investors were seeking to de-risk, sell, or add collateral to their margin positions in response to recent market volatility.
Over $3.15 billion in value moved through exchanges in the same period.
It’s too volatile an environment to predict prices for Bitcoin but Fundstrat Global Advisors expects a bottom of around $29,000 a coin.
It’s really anyone’s guess at this point.
NFTs sink
Prices for top NFT collections have unexpectedly fallen fast, down by 20% or more in over the past 36 hours, and these include the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.
On April 29, the bid price for a Bored Ape hit an all-time high of 152 ETH (about $429,000 at the time), the favorite smart contract coin investors use. A few days later, it sunk to 105 ETH, or about $292,000.
The cheapest-available Bored Ape is listed at 86 ETH or just above $194,000 as Ethereum at its lowest point since July 2021. It went from $2,693 on May 7th to 2,228 on May 10th. On April 25, it was $3,000 per ETH coin.
In the last 36 hours, CryptoPunks are down over 20% to near $114,000 (50 ETH).
The entry-level price for Otherdeed NFTs in the upcoming Otherside metaverse game fell over 50% in the last 7 days, 2/3rds of that in the past 36 hours. Entry-level Otherdeeds are priced at nearly 2.5 ETH, or about $5,650.
Ethereum and Binance altcoins
As mentioned, Ethereum’s price sharply fell in the last 10 days by nearly 4% in the last 24 hours. It is currently ranked the second largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization.
Binance’s BNB decreased in price from $378 on May 7th to a current $303. It is currently ranked as the fourth biggest crypto asset in terms of market cap.
