The cryptocurrency market, particularly bitcoin, is going through a tough time of market correction. The main digital asset continues to lose in value. On February 26, bitcoin pared some of its losses and settled at the level of $46,000. Over the past day, the cryptocurrency fell in price by 12%, while its weekly losses amounted to 21%.
Such a strong drop in quotes for the main crypto asset can be attributed to a flow of negative news from industry experts and major entrepreneurs. For example, Bill Gates and the US Treasury Secretary stated that the coin required too much energy to conduct transactions. The billionaire also added that high energy consumption was harmful to the environment. Another well-known investor and entrepreneur from India, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, said that bitcoin should be banned in the country. In addition, the main cryptocurrency, like the entire market, entered a correction, thus making the coin's matters worse.
This also affected the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency, which dropped from $1 trillion to $848 billion. Meanwhile, its daily trading volume is $70 billion. Since more than 60% of the market capitalization accounts for bitcoin, the sharp depreciation in value of the main digital asset has had a severe negative impact on major altcoins.
After several weeks of growth, with the price hitting a record high, Ethereum slipped to $1,430. Nevertheless, it managed to advance to $1,480 in the last few hours. This decline was also triggered by the price correction in the market, as well as bitcoin's recent slide.
The Ripple token, following several days of a steep downward movement from $0.4770 to $0.4162, started to slightly gain in value. As a result, XRP rose to $0.4284 amid news about Ripple's cooperation with central banks with a view of creating new digital coins.
Litecoin came under strong pressure from the crypto market correction as well. The price of the asset dropped to $167 from $202. However, despite serious market resistance, the cryptocurrency has been growing in price for the last several hours and has even consolidated at $172.
Although some crypto assets are showing slight gains, the market situation remains rather challenging. Bitcoin and ether lack drivers to consolidate at safe levels and then start a new rally. As of February 26, there is every reason to believe that the main crypto asset may fall to the $30,000 mark. However, the situation can be improved by the flow of investments provided by MicroStrategy, ARK Invest, and the company of Twitter's head.
At the same time, due to this market slump, large investors and the world community now understand that the cryptocurrency market is not a foreign body driven only by volatility and economic indicators. On the contrary, the crypto market, like any other market, is subject to price corrections and the negative impact of fundamental news. This will allow crypto assets to secure their status as an independent financial instrument with great potential.