While the stock market was closed this weekend and unable to react to the news of Israel's drone attack by Iran, the crypto market was ready to react.
Assets overall fell as traders readjusted their portfolios and scaled back risky bets. Bitcoin itself fell from just over $70,000 on Friday, April 12th to just over $63,000 by the end of April 13th, a decline of approximately 11.6% from Friday's high to Saturday's low.
In fact, Bitcoin was one of the least affected cryptocurrencies. According to Coinglass, there were $757 million worth of long liquidations on centralized exchanges on Saturday, but only $261 million worth of Bitcoin positions were held.
While most crypto assets fall into the “risk” category for traders, Bitcoin is arguably the least risky cryptocurrency, boasting the largest market capitalization and a decent track record of institutional adoption. On the other hand, something like Dogecoin is more speculative, and Doge fell about 30% from Friday's high to Saturday's low.
Most assets appear to have hit a relative bottom late Saturday, but there was a slight rebound.
In theory, Bitcoin could soar in this situation, as it is considered a “safe haven” as it is not tied to any particular government or country. Gold prices have recently fallen due to concerns about conflict in the Middle East, and that could spill over into what is being called “digital gold.”
However, with the stock market closed, Bitcoin and its fellow cryptocurrencies faced the brunt of the decline.
Even though Bitcoin took a hit, it was still a top performer.
Bitcoin's dominance, or the share of Bitcoin's market capitalization to the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, rose to 52.86% on Sunday, the highest since April 2021.
Bitcoin's dominance fell to 43% in February as altcoins soared amid a broad rally, pushing Bitcoin's dominance to its lowest level since March 2023.
All of this reversed as Bitcoin became even more lukewarm over the weekend, allowing it to gain its largest market share in three years.
This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Let's dig into the numbers that make up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.
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