Bitcoin Hits Lowest Price Since 2020 as Ethereum Nears $2,000

By Jeff Benson

The price of Ethereum dropped by nearly 10% in 24 hours to put it under the $2,100 mark for the first time since July 2021. Nearly simultaneously, Bitcoin extended its losses by 7% to hit $28,170—its lowest point since December 2020, when it was in the midst of a massive New Year's rally.

In what's shaping up to be one of the cryptocurrency market's worst weeks in history, Bitcoin and Ethereum have lost 28% and 30% of their value, respectively, in the past seven days.

Those aren't anywhere near the worst declines. 

Terra's LUNA has lost 99% of its value in the past week as Terra's UST stablecoin lost its peg, taking a recently top-10 asset and putting it behind EOS for market capitalization. ApeCoin aped into the bear market and lost two-thirds of its value. And last week's Fantom value was a mere apparition; it's down 65%. The list goes on.

But Bitcoin and Ethereum are by far the leaders by capitalization, combining for roughly two-thirds of the total crypto market cap's value. 

The crypto market's shrinking market cap, that is. Down 12% over the course of just the past 24 hours, it now sits at $1.24 trillion, its lowest point this year.

The crypto meltdown is happening in parallel to declines for stock prices. The Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average continued their downward trajectories since the Federal Reserve's decision last week to raise interest rates and rollback monetary expansion. The Fed's goal is to fight high inflation by making it more expensive to borrow.

But it's not just making money tighter for stocks. All risk assets are feeling the pain.

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