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Decline in Cryptocurrency Values: Bitcoin and Ethereum Drop by More than 10 Percent

Last week’s rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum was short-lived, as both market leaders fell by more than 10 percent during the past week, with Bitcoin dropping below the key $20,000 mark.

The largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at $19,203, while its leading rival Ethereum suffered greater losses, falling about 15 percent during the week to $1,045.

Several major cryptocurrencies recorded significant losses last week, including Polygon and Near Protocol, each dropping by 22 percent to $47 and $3.30, respectively. Avalanche fell 23 percent to $16.32, Solana 23 percent to $32.63, and Polkadot 18 percent to $6.80.

Almost every cryptocurrency in the top 30 experienced double-digit percentage losses except for Leo, Tron, and Dogecoin. Leo fell 1.5 percent to $5.77, while Dogecoin also dropped 1.5 percent to $0.06719. Meanwhile, Tron fell by 0.69 percent last week to $0.06485.

3AC Files for Bankruptcy

There was little room for optimism in the weekly news, most of which only confirmed fears that the sector is entering a recession.

On Monday, more details emerged regarding the insolvency of Singaporean crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), with reports that crypto broker Voyager Digital issued a notice for 3AC’s failure to repay part of a $673 million debt from loans of 15,250 Bitcoins and $350 million in USDC.

Sky News reported on Wednesday that 3AC was ordered to liquidate by court order in the British Virgin Islands, and that management consulting firm Teneo would assist in the insolvency proceedings.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that 3AC filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy, a move to protect the fund’s assets in the U.S. while liquidation occurs on the islands.

Bear Market

On Monday, a report from digital asset manager Coinshares revealed that outflows from Bitcoin investment products last week totaled $453 million, roughly equal to all inflows over the past six months.

According to CoinShares, last week’s outflow was the third largest recorded by assets under management (AUM), representing 1.2 percent of the total AUM of all funds tracked by CoinShares. The worst outflows by percentage, 1.6 percent, were recorded during the bear market of 2018.

Also on Monday, Coinbase shares fell 9 percent to $56.88 after Goldman Sachs downgraded the company from ‘neutral’ to ‘sell’, causing the price to drop from 70 to 45 dollars. Coinbase recently announced it would lay off 18 percent of its workforce.

On the same day, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler confirmed in an interview with CNBC the regulatory agency’s stance that Bitcoin is a commodity, not a security, but refrained from extending the classification to any other cryptocurrency.

Gensler stated that Bitcoin is an example of crypto assets that should be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as he had previously stated. The previous SEC administration also considered Ethereum a commodity.

The SEC on Wednesday rejected Grayscale’s application for a Bitcoin spot ETF, stating that the digital asset management giant had not done enough to protect investors from fraudulent and manipulative actions and practices. The following day, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein announced on Twitter that his company was suing the SEC.

Overall, the last three months have been extremely pessimistic for Bitcoin, as the market leader recorded its second-worst quarterly performance ever. Some players took advantage of this, with individuals like MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and authoritarian Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele buying the ‘dip’.