Srinagar, June 18: Amid a wider cryptocurrency market carnage on the weekend, the largest digital currency by market capitalisation Bitcoin (BTC) has broken the $19,000 levels, the first time since December 2020, while the second largest crypto Ethereum (ETH) has broken the psychological $1,000 mark, CNBC TV18 reported.
Bitcoin is currently down about 10% and trading at $19,040, after making a low of $18,905, according to data from Coinmarketcap.
ETH is down around 10%, trading at $992, after making a low of $986.
The overall market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has fallen by 5% in the last 24 hours and currently stands at $853 billion.
According to experts, the confidence level among investors dropped when the market capitalisation fell below $900 million and over $100m of Bitcoin futures contracts in the last 24 hours were liquidated.
Former CEO of BitMEX Arthur Hayes says massive sell pressure can be expected in the spot markets as key levels for BTC – $20,000 and ETH – $1,000 break, as dealers hedge themselves.
We can also expect that there will be some OTC dealers that will be unable to hedge properly and might go belly up,” he says.