Daily Times

The cryptocurrency market crashed on Friday, with market capitalisation losing 9 percent to reach $1.91 trillion. The massive slump has resulted in a loss of around $233 billion sending the total market cap plunging below $2 trillion for the first time since late September.

As of 1300 hours GMT, the largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s price decreased by 9.88 percent to reach $37,811, a six-month low. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of the biggest crypto has reached $716 billion. Experts had warned previously that bitcoin might fall below $40,000 due to concerns of pending interest rates hike and crypto ban proposal set in place by the Russians. Bitcoin dumped around $5,000 during the intraday trading, and further losses look very likely at this stage.

Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, is also in a world of pain, losing 12.24 percent over the past 24 hours to reach $2,749. With this massive decrease in price, the market capitalisation of ETH has reached $323.5 billion. ETH price has slumped to its lowest levels since September 29 when it hit $2,809.

Similar was the case with XRP whose price went 10.62 percent down to reach $0.665. The market capitalisation of XRP stands at $66.5 billion with this decrease.

Likewise, Cardano (ADA) price tumbled by 12.53 percent to hit $1.17. Its market capitalisation has fallen to $38.7 billion with this decrease. On the other hand, Dogecoin (DOGE) price slumped by 9.76 percent to reach $0.148. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of DOGE has fallen to $19.7 billion.

A common investment case for cryptos is that they serve as a hedge against rising inflation as a result of quantitative easing by global central banks in order to tame Covid-19 disruption in the global economy, but experts are saying the risk is that a more hawkish Federal Reserve may take the hit on crypto assets. As the 10-year US Treasury yield spiked earlier this week, rising rates have caused investors to shed their positions in riskier assets. Yields move opposite to prices.