Crypto winter seems to be biting hard with cryptocurrency prices crashing further with bitcoin hitting a new low on Thursday before a modest rally. The downward pressure was a fallout of the crypto exchange Binance backtracking on the offer to purchase sinking rival FTX Trading. Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency, also plunged more than 10% to $1,166.
BTC price plunged to $15,800 level — the lowest since November 2020 before improving to $16,287 and above. In the last 7 days, bitcoin had crashed by almost 15%. The global crypto market cap also below the $1 trillion mark, down over 12% to $844 billion.
Other cryptocurrencies continued to dip as the current market events injured investor sentiments.
Despite Thursday’s meager rally, analysts believe more disruption is on cards in the coming days.
The collapse of FTX and the resulting shock to the system will propel more slides in crypto prices leading to “a new cascade of margin calls”, warned analysts at JP Morgan.
“This deleveraging is likely to last for at least a few weeks unless a rescue for Alameda Research and FTX is agreed quickly,” JP Morgan analysts cautioned.
The crypto industry is now in a wait-and-watch mode to see how companies are getting affected by the FTX fiasco.
Meanwhile, VC fund Sequoia Capital announced that it would be writing down its total investment of nearly $215 million in FTX.