$500bn wiped out from crypto market as bitcoin, ether sink

Author: Agencies

The cryptocurrency market experienced its largest three-day sell-off in a year, shedding up to $510 billion since August 2, as weak jobs data and renewed recession fears gripped investors.

The sharp decline in the crypto market coincided with a downturn in equities, with the S&P 500 falling by 4.4% over the same period.

The sell-off was fueled by disappointing employment figures, sluggish growth among major tech stocks, and growing concerns about an impending recession.

Major companies such as Microsoft and Intel posted lower-than-expected second-quarter results, while NVIDIA faced pressure from expectations of potential rate cuts in September.

This led to capital flowing back into smaller, lagging companies as investors reevaluated their positions.

The cryptocurrency market has seen its sharpest three-day decline since mid-August 2023, with Bitcoin and Ethereum prices dropping significantly amid a sudden market sell-off on August 5.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) prices tumbled drastically, falling 10% and 18% respectively in the last two hours alone. As of publication, BTC and ETH have declined by 20% and 28% over the past week.

Solana (SOL), a Layer-1 network, has been the hardest hit among the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, falling 30.6% since July 30.

Analysts attribute part of the sell-off to Jump Crypto, a trading firm that offloaded hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in recent days, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.