Cryptocurrency prices today plunged with the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin falling over a per cent and was trading at $20,316. The global cryptocurrency market cap today was below the $1 trillion, and was down over 2% in the last 24 hours to $953 billion, as per CoinGecko.
On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, fell nearly 2% to $1,149. Meanwhile, dogecoin price today was trading 3% lower at $0.06 whereas Shiba Inu tanked over 5% to $0.000010.
Other crypto prices’ today performance also declined as XRP, Tether, Solana, BNB, Litecoin, Uniswap prices were trading with cuts over the last 24 hours, whereas, Stellar, Chainlink, Tron, Apecoin and Polygon gained.
Crypto investors continued to jump ship as global funds witnessed net outflows totalling $423 million in the week ended 24 June, the largest on record, according to a report by digital asset manager CoinShares. The earlier record for outflows stood at $198 million earlier this year in January.
The latest outflows were solely focussed on bitcoin, which saw net selling for the week totalling $453 million. Meanwhile, ethereum saw net inflows totalling $11 million, the first for the crypto asset following 11 consecutive weeks of outflows. Multi-asset crypto funds also saw minor inflows.
Cryptocurrencies have suffered this year amid Federal Reserve rate hikes and stubbornly high inflation. After crypto’s last two-year hibernation ended in 2020, the sector spiked to around $3 trillion in total assets last November, before plunging to less than $1 trillion. The collapse of the Terra/Luna ecosystem and continued concern about hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. have further rattled investors.
Bitcoin miners needing to sell could weigh on the token’s price for some time, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bitcoin miners have been forced to tap into their cryptocurrency stashes as a plunge in prices, rising energy costs and increased competition bite into profitability.
“Offloading of Bitcoins by miners, in order to meet ongoing costs or to delever, could continue into Q3 if their profitability fails to improve,” the strategists wrote. That offloading “has likely already weighed on prices in May and June, though there is a risk that this pressure could continue.”
(With inputs from agencies)
