Ethereum Plunges to 2024 Low and Bitcoin Sinks as Liquidations Hit $272 Million – Decrypt

Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Ethereum has hit its lowest price in 2024 after sinking nearly 8% over a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko. The second-biggest coin dipped Friday to $2,193—a level not seen since last year.
Over the past week, the asset has fallen by 13%—worse than most of the biggest coins and tokens.
The price of Bitcoin also fell precipitously to $52,690, recovering somewhat to $53,516 after dropping 5% in the past day. The asset has also struggled as investors fast cash out of the newly-approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The lows echo a previous across-the-board plunge on Aug. 5.
The current market cap of the entire crypto sphere now stands at $1.96 trillion, a 6% 24-hour descent, falling below the $2 trillion waterline for the first time since February.
And CoinGlass data shows that in the past 24 hours, over $272 million in positions for all cryptocurrencies have been liquidated.
A total of $221 million in long positions—those betting on the price of the asset to go up—have been closed.
The plunge comes as investors fast flog “risk-on” assets like crypto and equities after weaker-than-expected data coming out of the U.S. on Friday rattled global markets.
The American stock market has also had its worst week since March 2023, with tech stocks bearing the brunt of the sell-off.
It’s all eyes on the Federal Reserve this month with investors expecting a rate cut from the central bank—but are unsure of just how big the move will be. The Fed under Chair Jerome Powell hiked interest rates to a 23-year high to tame inflation brought on following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Follow Frank on X. This morning MARA, the largest publicly-traded Bitcoin mining company, shared that it will be rolling out three new data centers in the U.S. Would it have made such an announcement had Harris won the election? Probably. (It’s not like they whisked up these data centers overnight.) But would they have made…
We do the research, you get the alpha! Get exclusive reports and access to key insights on airdrops, NFTs, and more! Subscribe now to Alpha Reports and up your game! Go to Alpha Reports In crypto, where most histories are reduced to one-liners, the tale of the Runes protocol—an optimized framework for creating meme coins…
Key Takeaways Coinbase has dropped its plan to buy BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure startup, for $2 billion. The acquisition was aimed at strengthening Coinbase’s stablecoin payments capabilities. Share this article Coinbase, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, has abandoned its planned $2 billion acquisition of BVNK, a London-based startup providing infrastructure for stablecoin operations, Fortune reported today….
Polygon (MATIC) bekommt in letzter Zeit viel Aufmerksamkeit, weil der Preis immer weiter steigt. Viele Investoren und Krypto-Fans fragen sich, was diesen Aufwärtstrend antreibt. In diesem Artikel schauen wir uns genauer an, warum der Preis von Polygon zuletzt gestiegen ist – darunter neue Partnerschaften, mehr Nutzung und positive Marktstimmung. Egal ob du schon lange im…
Key Takeaways: Massive Donation: Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road, received a Bitcoin donation worth approximately $31 million (equivalent to 300 BTC). Suspicious Origins: On-chain analysis indicates the Bitcoin originated from a crypto wallet linked to AlphaBay, a defunct dark web marketplace that succeeded Silk Road. Sophisticated Obfuscation: The donor employed…
Fintech powerhouse Revolut announced that users can now swap U.S. dollars to stablecoins at a true 1:1 rate, with no fees and no spread, across six major blockchains. ➡️ Revolut now offers 1:1 USD-to-stablecoin swaps for USDC and USDT with zero fees or spreads, up to approximately $578,000 per month. ➡️ The move lowers friction…