Bitcoin Recovers $40,000 Amid Wider Crypto Market Slump

Bitcoin has rallied to reclaim the $40,000 mark following a crash that saw it drop 15% in 24 hours. At time of going to press, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap stands at $40,119, down 4.7% on the day, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has similarly reclaimed the psychological level of $3,000 after dropping below it overnight. It currently stands at just over $3,000, down 4.2% on the day.

The cryptocurrency market remains emphatically in the red, with the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies dropping to $1.86 trillion, a drop of 3.76% in the last 24 hours. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are down over 13% in the last seven days.

BTC

-0.09%$119,113.80

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Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Solana and Cardano have been hit the hardest, falling by 6.4% and 5.9% respectively in the last 24 hours.

Speculation has focused on Bitcoin's increasing correlation with stock prices as a possible explanation for the crash, with Bitcoin's price correlation with the S&P 500 hitting 0.49 in March. With all three major U.S. stock indexes ending Monday in negative territory, the crypto market has fallen in lockstep.

ETH

+9.28%$3,731.91

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Monero defies the market

Curiously, one cryptocurrency that has outperformed the market is Monero; the privacy coin is up 8.9% on the day and 8.1% on the week, and currently stands at $244.

XMR

-2.74%$327.58

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Some speculation has focused on increased activity around Monero as being linked to sanctions evasion. Last month, U.S. public policy nonprofit Brookings singled out Monero as a potential tool for criminals, noting that, "As the privacy protections of a given coin increases, so too does the likelihood it could be used as part of a sanctions-evasion scheme."

However, this doesn't seem to be borne out by the wider market; fellow privacy coins Dash and Zcash have followed the market's downward trend, and are down 4.2% and 9.0% on the day respectively.