The market value of Bitcoin dropped and was at roughly $605 billion at the end of May. BTC is currently trading below the $50,000 mark because of the bearish stance of the market.

Last month, Bitcoin was beaten to a bloody pulp with the crypto market crash, triggering the top crypto’s market value drop. And it’s not just the crypto that bore the brunt of the pounding. Other popular cryptocurrencies had the same fate. 

But if you look at the good parts of a bad situation, BTC remains the king in terms of market cap in June 2022. The coin has concluded May with a market cap of $605.8 billion.

If you compare June stats with BTC’s May 1 opening day market value, you’ll see how it has declined by 17%. The May 1 trading value had a market cap of $732 billion and a trading volume commensurate to $27 billion. 

Suggested Reading | Crypto Community Sees Nearly 80% Upside For Ethereum By End Of June

Bitcoin Remains Bullish

Bitcoin had shed more than 50% of its value, which was seen at its all-time high in November 2021 before the crypto market spiraled downwards. Its fall was then followed by the fall of Terra, which has further maimed the crypto industry. 

The bullish or weakened sentiment has spread fear and uncertainty among investors. A lot of investors panicked and withdrew their money. 

Both BTC and Ethereum, the two leading digital assets in the crypto market, have slumped by more than 40% since November of 2021. BTC price has been highly volatile over the past couple of months, and investors feel the agitation. 

On the brighter side, with crypto set at $29,000, investor confidence has been restored with the consolation that crypto has somehow stabilized. 

More Fluctuations In The Coming Months?

On the other hand, experts believe that Bitcoin will face more fluctuations in the coming months. Sadly, the entire crypto market cap has been down by as much as 43% over the past two months. But, there is hope for the market to reclaim lost glory when specific metrics are met. 

A bearish crypto market is not one that investors would like to venture into, but you have to take the good with the bad in the crypto space. A bearish stance has its benefits because it gives investors more time to assess their investments and check other projects that can go up once the prices climb again. 

Suggested Reading | Bitcoin Records 1st Weekly Green Candle In 3 Months – A Start Of A Bull Run?

Bitcoin’s opening on May 1 bolstered to $37,713 and went further up with a monthly high of $39,789. It, however, tested low on May 12 at $26,350 on May 12, before it closed the month of May with a trading price of $31,792.

This gives BTC a 15% reduction between the opening and closing stats for the BTC price in May. 

Featured image from Nairametrics, chart from TradingView.com

The crypto market recently saw a downturn that caused $120 billion to be taken off the total market cap in the space of a day. This obviously had caused panic across the market, triggering sell-offs from investors who were trying to save themselves from more losses. However, more than 110k traders would record hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as the downtrend had caused a cascading liquidation event.

Traders Lose $430 Million

The crypto market has recorded one of the largest liquidation events of 2022. On Thursday, the price of bitcoin had fallen below $37,000 hot to the news of interest rates being increased by 50 basis points in the just concluded FOMC meeting. This would be the beginning of a long day for crypto traders who had seen their trades liquidated into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Related Reading | Ethereum Exchange Inflows Decline As Sellers Cool Off, Will Price Follow?

Mainly, the liquidations were long liquidations from traders who had placed their bets on the optimistic future price of various cryptocurrencies. The market would continue to tumble and the liquidations would continue to leave ripples in the market. In total, there has been more than $430 million in liquidations in the last 24 hours alone.

Crypto liqudaitions surpass $430 million | Source: Coinglass

Naturally, bitcoin led the market with its liquidations. The pioneer cryptocurrency which is favored by traders for being the market leader saw traders liquidated to the tune of more than $200 million in the span of a day. Long liquidations made up about 70% although short traders were not left out of the onslaught. 

On the altcoin front, Ethereum led the pack with $69 million in liquidations. However, there were some other significant players in the space who had seen traders rekt beyond expectations.

GMT and APE, two coins that had been on the rise lately both saw more than $12 million dollars in liquidations respectively. Some might argue that they had seen the liquidations in APE coming due to the hype that had followed billionaire Elon Musk changing his Twitter profile picture to BAYC avatars.

Crypto market cap loses $120B | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com

Nevertheless, it remains a sad day for the market. Sentiment has now fallen into the extreme fear territory leading to incredibly low momentum in the market. More notably is the fact that bitcoin now lies dangerously low on the $36,000-$38,000 support level.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Broke Above The Multi-Week Resistance; What’s Next

This point remains crucial for bulls to hold the digital asset above as a fall below $36,000 will likely set the digital asset on a path below $30,000. If this happens, bitcoin being a market leader will certainly pull the rest of the market down with it, which could see long liquidations of historical proportions rock the market. 

Featured image from Physics World, chart from TradingView.com

One of the biggest oil and gas exploration companies, ConocoPhillips, is getting into Bitcoin mining. It will be using its extra gas to power Bitcoin mining activities.

In a report by CNBC, the Company revealed that it is selling its excess gas to a third-party Bitcoin miner instead of burning it off. The project is part of a pilot project in Bakken, an oil-rich region in North Dakota.

The representative from the firm said that the decision to be a part of the BTC mining business is in line with the Company’s policy of reducing the incidence of flaring excess gas and using it productively. The Company wants to eliminate flaring by 2030

The move will end the practice of flaring

The Company, having a global presence and working in 14 countries, has published various reports outlining how it will tackle the emission caused by flaring in the “Lower 48” states, of which Bakken falls. It has also expressed interest in partnering with technologies that potentially provide a solution to the ongoing problem of carbon emissions.

Use excess gas for profit

The Company has not named the mining rigs that will give the excess gas, but it is lucky to locate a mining rig close to its gas production platform. Oil and gas companies resort to flaring to eliminate surplus gas when there are problems in the transmission pipelines. It does this as a safety precaution to prevent the accumulation of gas.

In the last few years, there has been a raging debate about the carbon footprints caused by BTC mining. BTC mining requires gigantic amounts of cheap power. Coal-based power happens to be the most affordable power but is highly polluting for the environment. 

There have been calls for BTC mining hubs to use the power which environment favorable. Gas-based power plants are less polluting, and ConocoPhillips will also make good revenue from gas that would have been wasted.

About Author

Parasshuram has been online in various capacities as a pro-blogger, top researcher, and now a senior editor at CoinGape.com. He has over 14 years of experience in the field of online publishing. Mr Shalgar can be reached at [email protected]