Bloody Weekend Watch: BTC Fights for $40K, ETH Dumps Below $2.8K

The bears continue to put pressure on the crypto market as bitcoin dropped below $40,000 for the first time in two weeks. The altcoins are also deep in red once again, with Ethereum sliding beneath $2,800 and massive price drops from Solana, Avalanche, MATIC, and others.

Bitcoin Struggles Around $40K

It was just three days ago when the landscape around the largest cryptocurrency seemed significantly more bullish. The asset had recovered from its latest dips to $42,000 and actually challenged $45,000, however, to no avail.

The bears came back to the scene and gradually pushed BTC south to around $44,000 before the situation worsened on Thursday and Friday.

In a matter of hours, bitcoin slid by around $4,000, thus breaking below the January 2021 ATH of $42,000. Initially, the coveted $40,000 mark maintained but BTC dumped below it hours later and went all the way down to $39,500 for the first time since early February.

As of now, bitcoin has reclaimed some ground and stands around $40,000. Nevertheless, its market capitalization has declined to just over $750 billion, days after nearing $850 billion.

BTCUSD. Source: TradingView

Altcoins on the Downfall

The alternative coins have largely mimicked BTC’s performance lately, meaning that most are deep in red today. Ethereum is a prime example. It stood above $3,200 earlier this week, but it dropped below $3,000 days later and now finds itself struggling beneath $2,800 following another 5% daily nosedive.

Solana, Avalanche, Shiba Inu, and MATIC have declined by similar percentages since yesterday. This means that SOL trades at $90, AVAX is at $85, SHIB is at $0.000028, and MATIC is at $1.6.

Binance Coin, Ripple, Cardano, Polkadot, and Dogecoin are also in the red on a daily scale.

With most lower- and mid-cap alts also struggling, it’s somewhat expected that the entire crypto market cap is down by another $50 billion since yesterday. The metric, which stood above $2 trillion just days ago, is now at just over $1.8 trillion.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: Quantify Crypto