Bitcoin once again plunges below $20,000 on Wednesday morning. The last time it reached this level was June 22nd. Cryptocurrencies are down today, with the leading cryptocurrency trading at $19,998 per coin – 5.27% less than 24 hours ago.
The rest of the market is in a bearish state too.
Ethereum fell 7.45% in the day and is currently priced at around $1,128.
Cryptocurrencies are down today, with the most popular ones seeing major losses. Some of these include Solana (SOL) which is trading at $35.16 per coin and down 9.8% on its value this week alone; Avalanche also fell 6.82% to $18.21 – Binance Coin lost 8.39% to trade at $219.62.
Investors continue to shift away from cryptocurrency as markets decline. The latest price action, which also saw the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies plummet below $900 billion can be seen as yet another sign that investor uncertainty is growing and pressure on industry major players increase even more than before.
It sounds like investors are getting more cautious about cryptocurrency investments. This recent information shows a significant outflow for Bitcoin-specific funds, which totaled $453 million – essentially wiping away all inflows made in 6 months. It seems as though people feel less confident in risky assets and are rotating into something else instead.
The company Cypherpunk has officially sold all of its investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum, as the sentiment among investors continues to decline.
The Cypherpunk company announced that they had sold 205.8 Ethereum for $227,600 and 214 Bitcoin for $4.7 million. The firm said it accrued $5 million in proceeds from the sale of the two largest cryptocurrencies while maintaining cash and stablecoins on hand.
"We continue to see systemic risks propagating throughout the crypto ecosystem and, in our assessment of the risk-reward and opportunity costs involved in holding asset tokens, we believe that the most prudent approach is to sit on the sidelines as we wait for the volatility and illiquidity contagion to come to its logical conclusion," Jeff Gao, Cypherpunk President and CEO, said.
The crypto market downturn is also forcing more companies to assess their cost management practices, with leading European broker Bitpanda joining the growing list of firms announcing staff layoffs.
In a recent move, the company's headcount was reduced from 1,000 employees down to just 730. The reason given for this sudden change in staffing levels is that they are responding according to changes brought on by market sentiment and geopolitical tensions as well as rising inflation which has left many people jobless or under-employed.