Hotter-than-expected inflation data in the US threw a bucket of cold water on crypto this morning, resulting in around 6.5% being slashed from the markets.
Global capitalisation fell below the US$1tn mark once again, triggered mainly by Bitcoin’s painful 9.5% drop to $US20,300.
Perhaps surprisingly given its recent average performance, Ethereum fared slightly better with a 6.2% dip to the low US$1,600’s.
In the altcoin space, Solana bore the brunt of the bears with a 13% dip, closely followed by Avalanche, which lost around 10.5%.
The other large-cap network tokens all fell closer to the 5% mark.
Having just been delisted by major digital asset exchange Huobi, the multi-billion-dollar privacy coin Monero suffered a 9.5% hit to its market capitalisation.
However, Monero’s primary competitor ZCash, which also copped a delisting, suffered a less damaging 4%.
It is worth noting that the markets are still up against the week, at least for now.
Ravencoin (RVN) was one of the day’s few risers, having added 8% to its now US$703mln market cap.
The proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network is receiving goodwill from traders in the lead up to the Ethereum Merge, with some looking to it as a potential alternative after Ethereum ditches mining.
Total value locked across the decentralised finance (DeFi) markets dropped 4.5%, thus heading below US$56bn.
In the news
An arrest warrant for Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has been issued in South Korea citing violations of the Capital Markets Act.
The move comes four months after Terraform Labs' LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) cryptocurrencies collapsed, wiping US$40bn from the market in a matter of days.
Major global financial services companies Charles Schwab (NYSE:NYSE:SCHW), Fidelity, Paradigm and Sequoia, among others, are teaming up to launch a new digital asset exchange.
Called EDX Markets, the exchange “will address latent demand for digital asset trading by enabling safe and compliant trading of digital assets through trusted intermediaries,” according to the press release.