Bitcoin Slumps To Around $65K As Altcoins Continue To Decline

Bitcoin (BTC) experienced significant price fluctuations on Friday night, plunging $3,000 within minutes before partially recovering to $67,000. Altcoins faced even greater challenges, contributing to a total decline in the crypto market cap of about $70 billion overnight.

Although BTC managed to recover some losses, trading close to $67,000, the volatility resulted in over $400 million in liquidations. Currently, Bitcoin is down 1.3% for the day, bringing its market cap to $1.320 trillion, while its dominance in the market has increased to 55.7%.

More Ups And Downs
The week began positively for Bitcoin, which rose to $69,500 on Monday, marking its highest price since late July. However, it quickly encountered resistance, falling back to $67,000 by the end of Monday and continuing that trend into Tuesday.

Wednesday brought further volatility as bearish sentiment pushed Bitcoin down to $65,000. Nevertheless, bullish momentum emerged, with Bitcoin reaching nearly $69,000 several times on Thursday and Friday.

The real turbulence began following a Wall Street Journal report stating that the U.S. government initiated an investigation into Tether. Although the stablecoin issuer denied the allegations, Bitcoin plummeted over $3,000 in mere minutes, hitting $65,500.

Altcoins Decline
The impact on altcoins was even more pronounced, reflected in the rising dominance of Bitcoin. Ethereum, Binance Coin, Tron, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Cardano saw declines of 1% to 3.5% on the last day. Others, like SOL, DOGE, TON, AVAX, LINK, and SHIB, faced steeper losses, with the second-largest meme coin dropping as much as 5.3%.

Severe declines were noted for TIA (-14%), APT (-10%), MEW (-10%), KAS (-10%), AR (-10%), GALA (-10%), and JASMY (-9.5%). In total, the cryptocurrency market cap has decreased to $2.37 trillion, indicating a loss of approximately $70 billion in just one day.

Other Markets

A recent surge in bond trading has raised alarms about market makers and their potential overconfidence. Still, current credit spreads suggest an overly optimistic bond market, which could face rapid repricing if volatility spikes, especially after the presidential election.

In the stock market, large-cap companies are feeling the impact of a shift in investments as traders brace for the interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve. Despite rising yields, Wall Street bulls remain undeterred. Notably, hedging activity has surged across nearly all markets. For Chinese stocks, stimulus measures are deemed more critical than the U.S. elections.

In a decisive move against corruption, China penalized 589,000 individuals in just nine months. Meanwhile, DCA Airport experienced service disruptions due to a Microsoft outage, prompting Delta to sue CrowdStrike over a major software glitch.

In the oil sector, the Keystone operator was held accountable for a U.S. spill, while Brookfield raised $26 billion for Oaktree and infrastructure ventures. A Brookfield unit is also seeking to sell $1.5 billion in private credit. Finally, Wall Street has been coming up with new and innovative tax-loss harvesting strategies, providing wealthy clients with savvy ways to reduce their tax burdens.