Altcoins
Bitcoin Falls Below $30,000, Crypto Prices Buckle After Altcoin Frenzy Over XRP Decision
Cryptocurrency prices calmed down Friday afternoon following Thursday’s major market rally. apparent legal victory for Ripple Labs and its XRP token.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell below $30,000, down more than 5% from Thursday’s high of around $31,800.
Ether (ETH) also fell after its momentum on Thursday to change hands at $1,900, a 4% decline. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market value had already surpassed $2,000 to reach a three-month high.
XRP was trading at around $0.69, down 25% from yesterday’s high of $0.93. The token briefly toppled Binance’s BNB as the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but returned to fifth place in the ranking after today’s price drop.
Other major altcoins were mostly lower, including ADA And MATIC – tokens of smart contract platforms Cardano and Polygon, respectively – were each down more than 5% on Friday afternoon, although still higher over the past two days. THE CoinDesk Market Indexa measure of the performance of crypto markets, is down about 4% in the past 24 hours.
“[Bitcoin is] still trades as a consolidation instrument,” wrote Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for foreign exchange market maker Oanda, in an email to CoinDesk. According to him, the break above $31,000 does not look “particularly convincing at this stage.”
The sudden price drop caught traders betting on higher prices off-guard, with $155 million in long positions liquidated, according to CoinGlass. data. This is the largest long liquidation in a month.
UPDATE (July 14, 7:20 p.m. UTC): Prices updated throughout history. Added liquidation data.