Cryptocurrency market drops $40 billion daily, with ETH, XRP, ADA, LTC plummeting 6% (MarketWatch)

Immediately after the US Federal Reserve announced a pause in interest rate hikes, Bitcoin plummeted, dropping to its lowest level in months.

Most altcoins are faring even worse, with ETH, XRP, ADA, DOT, LTC, AVAX, and many other coins down 5-7%.

BTC falls below $25,000

The past week hasn't been all that great for BTC, despite a rebound on Tuesday following the SEC's lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase. As the weekend approached, Bitcoin plummeted again from $27,000 to below $26,000.

The weekend itself was somewhat positive as BTC was around $26,000. The first few days of the new week were no different, with cryptocurrencies trading at those levels.

This was followed by the US FOMC meeting, where Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was expected to halt monetary policy by raising key interest rates. This is what Chairman Powell actually announced, and somewhat surprisingly, it had a negative impact on BTC prices.

After a relatively static first few hours, BTC fell below $25,000 for the first time since mid-March. Despite trying to rebound soon after, the asset is still trading below that level.

The company's market capitalization has fallen to $485 billion, but its control over alternatives remains at 47.5%.

alternative dump hard

Alt coins followed BTC south. Ethereum was the worst performer among large-cap stocks, falling more than 6%. As a result, ETH fell below $1,650, its lowest level in months.

Ripple, Cardano, Litecoin, Polkadot, Polygon, and Avalanche all fell by similar percentages. Binance Coin, Dogecoin, Tron, Solana, and Shiba Inu are also in the red, albeit to a lesser extent.

Mid-cap and lower-cap alternative stocks are struggling as well. Some of the most notable daily drops include Lido DAO, Arbitrum HBAR, XLM, and TONCOIN.

Overall, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has declined by $40 billion, putting it on the verge of falling below the coveted $1 trillion mark.