• Bitcoin briefly fell to $100,000 after a sharp market-wide sell-off.
• Over $1.6 billion in leveraged long positions were liquidated in 24 hours.
• The crash was fueled by “risk-off” sentiment and Fed rate cut uncertainty.

The cryptocurrency market was rocked by a wave of forced selling late Monday, triggering a sharp downturn that saw Bitcoin briefly touch the $100,000 level and erased more than $1.6 billion in leveraged bullish positions.

The sudden deleveraging event, one of the largest since September, sent a shockwave across the digital asset space, with major altcoins like Ether, Solana, and XRP posting heavy losses as renewed macroeconomic fears spooked investors.

The core of the market’s turmoil was a massive cascade of liquidations. In the last 24 hours, more than $2 billion in crypto futures contracts were forcibly closed, with long traders—those betting on higher prices—accounting for nearly 80% of the losses at $1.6 billion, according to CoinGlass data.

This automatic selling pressure occurs when traders using borrowed funds see their positions move sharply against them, forcing exchanges to sell the assets to cover losses. 

Macro headwinds and risk-off sentiment

The sell-off was fueled by a broader “risk-off” mood spreading across financial markets.

Analysts pointed to a combination of factors that are making investors nervous and prompting them to shed speculative assets.

“Recent speculation that the FOMC may pass on another rate cut this year, as well as concerns over tariffs, credit market conditions, and equity valuations, helped drive markets lower,” Gerry O’Shea, head of global market insights at Hashdex, said in an email to CoinDesk.

He added that Bitcoin’s price has also been affected by profit-taking from long-term holders, which he described as “an expected phenomenon as the asset matures.”

Bitcoin at a crossroads: a test of support

Following the plunge, Bitcoin staged a modest rebound to trade around $101,000. However, the token remains down 5.5% over the past day and more than 10% for the week.

The pain was more severe for altcoins, with Ether dropping 10%, while Solana and BNB lost 8% and 7% respectively.

Despite the sharp downturn, some analysts believe the long-term picture for Bitcoin remains positive.

“While $100,000 may be a psychologically important support level, we do not view today’s price action as a sign of a weakening long-term investment case for Bitcoin,” O’Shea said.

With the Federal Reserve’s next move uncertain and global risk appetite fragile, the coming days will be a crucial test for the market, determining whether Bitcoin can hold its current level or if another wave of forced selling is on the horizon.

The Bitcoin price continues to lead the market and with each crash, it has taken down the altcoin market with it. Amid this, Ethereum has performed especially poorly, returning to prices not seen since seven years ago. As Donald Trump’s tariff situation rocks the market, the question on everyone’s lips is, where is the Bitcoin price headed from here?

Market Experts Chime In On Bitcoin Price

Crypto market sentiment has tanked to levels not seen in years with the Bitcoin crash into the $ 70,000 territory, and according to many, the battle is far from over. One of the experts who have said that the Bitcoin price could stay low during this time is Alex Guts, CEO of Banxe.

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According to Guts, the BTC price could continue to trade in a tight $72,000-$84,000 range during this time. Looking over for the long-term, the CEO sees “prospects staying bullish as adoption and policy support grow.”

On the same note, while Trump’s policies and tariff wars have caused the markets to tank, expectations remain that this could be good for the markets in the long term. In an analysis shared with NewsBTC, a Bitunix expert analyst pointed out that what the Trump administration is doing is “igniting a regulatory renaissance for crypto.”

He points out that all of the President’s actions since he took office have shown this, especially with his empowerment of crypto leaders. So, despite the market being down now, Trump’s moves could end up igniting further growth for the market.

The Bitunix analyst warns that investors should not allow the news of the tariff wars to cloud their judgment. He outlines that sometimes it is imperative to implement new things in order to fix what is broken, likening it to ‘taking medicine’.

As for where the Bitcoin price could be headed next from here, the expert analyst told NewsBTC:

“Well, the recent price drop in major cryptocurrencies has worried retail investors, but we believe that Bitcoin could potentially reach $117k after the dust settles.”

The Sad State Of Affairs Of ETH/BTC

Despite being the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, the Ethereum price has performed poorly, especially in comparison to Bitcoin. Looking at the ETH/BTC chart, there seems to be no support in sight as the crash continues.

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So far, Ethereum has fallen to 0.01889 BTC, a level that has not been recorded since 2019. This suggests that Ethereum has completely retraced its gains from the past six years, plunging believers and supporters into deep losses.

For a turnaround for Ethereum, it seems major news would have to come out to propel a recovery. Otherwise, the lack of support suggests that Ethereum holders have more turbulence ahead of them to deal with.

Featured image from Dall.E, Chart from TradingView.com

Key Takeaways

• Crypto volatility is back up to levels last seen when FTX collapsed in November
• $791 million of liquidations rocked investors between Thursday and Sunday
• $383 million of longs were liquidated on Thursday and Friday, the largest 48-hour number of the year
• News that deposits will be made whole at SVB propelled the market upwards late on Sunday, with $150 million of short sellers liquidated as Bitcoin retook $22,000
• Despite Fed move stablising prices and 2023 showing a bounceback, the long-term implications for the crypto market are negative here and should concern investors

For once, it’s not crypto doing the collapsing. Trad-fi was feeling left out of the party, evidently, as the banking sector wobbled in a big way this weekend. 

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is no more, in what amounts to the largest collapse of a US bank since 2008, when Lehman Brothers pulled its best Satoshi Nakamoto impression and disappeared into the ether (pun not intended). 

While the drama may have centred in trad-fi, crypto bounced around aggressively over the weekend as a variety of knock-on effects rumbled. SVB was a crypto-friendly bank, as was Silvergate, which was announced to also be winding down last night. 

This, as well as the fact that the entire financial markets wobbled, meant crypto faced a storm. We have dug into some of the movements here at https://coinjournal.net/ to sum up the carnage. 

Liquidations 

With violent price swings, liquidations were inevitable. Longs got caught out badly on Thursday and Friday, as the Bitcoin price fell south of $20,000. 

There were $249 million of long liquidations across exchanges on Thursday, with Friday bringing an additional $134 million. The $383 million of long liquidations was the most in any 48 hour period this year. 

Volatility

Obviously, liquidations stem from volatility. Looking at Bitcoin to dissect the extent of the movements, the volatility is now back up to levels last seen when FTX collapsed in November. 

The chart below shows that the metric had been rising steadily, before SVB going poof kicked it back up to a mark 3-Day volatility mark of 50%, last seen when Sam Bankman-Fried’s fun and games were revealed to the public.

“We have been seeing relatively muted action in the crypto markets since the FTX collapse last November” said Max Coupland, Director of CoinJournal. “The SVB event served to kick volatility back up to levels we last saw amid all the crypto scandals of last year – not only FTX, but Celsius, LUNA etc. The difference with this event is that the crash was sparked in trad-fi for a change”.

Crypto bounces back

But all is well that ends well. Or something along those lines, as despite SVB going under, the Fed announced last night, after a weekend of chaos, that all deposits at SVB would be made whole. 

The bail-out (if you can call it that, as SVB is still going under) quelled up fear in the markets that the issue could become systemic. Crypto roared back, with Bitcoin spiking back up to $22,000 at time of writing. And this time, it was shorts who got caught offside, with $150 million liquidated across the market Sunday. 

Perhaps the biggest winner of all was the world’s second-biggest stablecoin, USDC. 25% of the stablecoin’s reserves are backed by cash. Crucially, 8.25% ($3.3 billion) of reserves were (are) trapped in SVB, with the stablecoin dipping below 90 cents on several major exchanges over the weekend. 

1/ Following the confirmation at the end of today that the wires initiated on Thursday to remove balances were not yet processed, $3.3 billion of the ~$40 billion of USDC reserves remain at SVB.

— Circle (@circle) March 11, 2023

At press time, the peg has been largely restored as the crypto market bounces upward, with Bitcoin north of $24,000.  

What next for crypto?

And so, the immediate storm appears to have been weathered in cryptoland. 

Nonetheless, the past few days present as yet another crushing blow. Three of the big crypto banks – SVB, Silvergate and Signature – are now no more. These banks allowed crypto firms to offer on-ramping from fiat into crypto 24/7 through their settlement services, in contrast to the regular banking hours of the banking sector. 

Liquidity and volume thus may dip even further in the crypto market, after a year that has already seen volumes, prices and interest in the space freefall. 

Despite the Fed stepping in to shore up deposits and hence stabilising the stablecoin market and wider crypto prices, the long-term future of the cryptocurrency industry in the US has taken another heavy body blow this weekend. And with the US being the biggest financial market in the world, that is very bad news. 

Coupled with the regulatory clampdown by the SEC in the last few months, 2023 has followed 2022 in creating a more hostile and bearish environment for the sector at large. 

So crypto investors may have seen a bounceback in prices in the last few months, but this appears to be largely macro-driven correlation with the stock market, as the underlying events in the industry – regulation, more bankruptcies, and crypto-friendly banks shuttering – have not been positive. 

If you use our data, then we would appreciate a link back to https://coinjournal.net. Crediting our work with a link helps us to keep providing you with data analysis research.

• Cardano’s most significant agreement has been made with the Ethiopian government.

Africa has become increasingly important to the Cardano blockchain and its community, and the benefits are showing. This cryptocurrency is the most popular in the area, claims a media report.

Cardano is a more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency because of its proof-of-stake consensus method, which uses substantially less energy than other cryptocurrencies’ proof-of-work algorithms. The governance model of the coin, which encourages community involvement in decision-making is another factor in Cardano’s rise to prominence as the most popular cryptocurrency.

Owing to the coin’s distinctive architecture, transactions can be processed more quickly and effectively, and it is also possible to link to other blockchain networks. Due to this, it is a desirable choice for both private users and organizations wishing to collaborate and conduct daily business using cryptocurrency.

According to the report’s findings, Cardano is the most popular cryptocurrency in Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Tunisia. Compared to Solana, Ethereum, Avalanche, and other coins, Cardano is more prevalent in these areas.

The two cryptocurrencies that are most cherished over the globe are Ethereum and Solana. According to the report, the outcomes were influenced by their smart contract and decentralized finance (DeFi) apps. Users utilize these platforms as an alternative to conventional investments, according to statistics from the Pew Research Center.

Cardano took longer to implement its smart contract capabilities through three Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) events during its “Alonzo” era, despite having a significant presence in Africa. As a result, the majority of consumers looking for DeFi applications chose Solana and Ethereum.

Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOG, a blockchain developer, and the founder of Cardano believes that this region has the potential to see an economic boom.

According to Hoskinson, Africa has more than $5 trillion in “illiquid” assets on hand. The systems that assist the locals in extracting their wealth will profit. Hoskinson stated: “In the coming ten years, Africa’s economic ecosystem will hold the most potential.”

This blockchain has so far made its most significant agreement with the Ethiopian government. The African country began transforming its educational system using Cardano. When the agreement was announced in 2021, millions of people were expected to use the blockchain.

Overall, the study’s results indicate that Cardano is well-established in the area and is probably going to stay a popular option going forward.

It seems that Elon Musk will keep appearing on TV, exposing himself to a much wider audience than can be found on Twitter. His debut took place on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in May 2021, where he pumped his favored crypto — Dogecoin.

Now, he has been invited to open a show hosted by Hollywood comedian Chris Rock. If he is going to mention Dogecoin there, it will be a complete surprise for the community as, so far, Musk has not tweeted anything about it to the Doge army. But you never know.

In a recent tweet, Musk thanked Rock and promised “not to flounder too much.” Chris Rock has been on everyone’s lips in Hollywood recently after the scandal with Will Smith at the Oscars ceremony in July.

In late July, Smith recorded a video with an apology to Rock; however, recently the comedian publicly rejected it during SNL.

.@Chrisrock invited me to open for one of his shows. Thanks Chris! I will try not to flounder too much.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2022

Over a year since Musk’s SNL debut

On May 8 last year, the billionaire and head of several companies, including the Tesla and SpaceX giants, Elon Musk made his first appearance as co-host of the popular show “Saturday Night Live.”

He made jokes about his Twitter account, what he posted there not long before and about the original meme cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

After Musk’s multiple mentions during SNL, the meme coin soared to a new historic peak, which has not been beaten to date — $0.7376 per coin — with its market capitalization soaring to $93 billion, adding $10 billion within just 24 hours.

Bitcoin had the same market cap two years before — in 2019 during crypto winter.

Elon did not just appear on TV, he teased his debut to the Dogecoin army on Twitter, calling himself “The DogeFather,” referring to the classic novel by Mario Puzo and the iconic movie based on it.

Great news!!! pic.twitter.com/N1WwaQZi3L

— 𝐁𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 – Tesla AI, Texas (@BogusThought) September 4, 2022

Dogecoin down 91.62% from Musk-driven ATH

It seems that Elon Musk is the only driver of Dogecoin price but even “Musk effect” on DOGE has begun to wear off. Now that more than a year has passed since DOGE’s all-time high, the cryptocurrency is trading almost 92% below that peak level.

The majority of tweets posted by the eccentric billionaire since then managed to push the DOGE price up by a tiny percent and for a short period that did not last more than a day and sometimes just an hour.

In December, Musk announced that Tesla began to accept DOGE in its online shop as payment for some of its merchandise. SpaceX did likewise in the summer.