Crypto Crash: A Plunge of 500 Billion Dollars!

The crypto market has just experienced a spectacular drop, losing nearly $500 billion in just three days. This plunge, the largest in a year, comes in a context of weak employment data and fears of recession. Let’s dive into the reasons and consequences of this abrupt crash.

The largest drop in a year

The cryptocurrency market briefly lost up to $510 billion since August 2. This sharp decline occurred in a context of declining stock performance, with the S&P 500 having dropped 4.4% during the same period.

The weakness of employment data, the slowdown in growth of major tech companies, and the resurgence of recession fears have all contributed to this plunge.

Several major companies, including Microsoft and Intel, reported results below expectations for the second quarter. The market leader, NVIDIA, was also affected by the expectations of imminent rate cuts in September, leading to a return of capital to smaller, less developed companies.

The last time cryptocurrencies collapsed this sharply over a three-day period was in mid-August 2023.

Crypto giants in freefall

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell by $50,249 and Ether (ETH) dropped by $2,214 as part of a sudden market sell-off on August 5. These assets fell by 10% and 18% respectively in just the last two hours. At the time of publication, BTC and ETH had lost 20% and 28% respectively over the past week.

The layer 1 network Solana (SOL) was the hardest hit cryptocurrency among the 10 largest tokens by market capitalization, dropping 30.6% since July 30.

Several market commentators also considered a wave of sales by Jump Crypto as an aggravating factor, with the trading company offloading hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets over the past few days, according to Arkham Intelligence data.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, an indicator that tracks market sentiment towards bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, has fallen back into the “fear” category and currently shows a score of 26 at the time of publication, according to data from Alternative.me. Indeed, this index has fallen to its lowest level in 23 days.

The crypto market is going through a tumultuous period, with a drop of $500 billion in just three days. Economic factors, the performance of major tech companies, and fears of recession have all played a role in this plunge.