Bitcoin, Ether bounce off lows after record-breaking rout

moneycontrol.com:

Bitcoin plunged through several closely watched price levels to the lowest since late 2020 as evidence of deepening stress within the crypto industry keeps piling up against a backdrop of monetary tightening.

The largest digital token by market value tumbled as much as 15% to $17,599 on Saturday, marking a record-breaking 12th consecutive daily decline according to Bloomberg data. It’s still only the biggest drop since Monday. The currency recovered some of those losses and was trading at $19,075 as of 8:30am in Singapore Sunday.

Ether fell as much as 19 percent to $881, the lowest since January 2021, before climbing 11 percent to $1,005 on Sunday morning in Singapore. The two bellwethers of the crypto market are both down more than 70% from all-time highs set in early November.

“What we’re seeing is more liquidations driving prices and sentiment lower, which triggers more liquidations and negative sentiment -- some flushing-out needed still, but this will at some stage exhaust itself,” said Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis, one of the largest and best-known lenders in the digital-assets space.

Total liquidations in the crypto market were $566.7 million in the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin and Ether at around $271 million and $192 million respectively, according to data from Coinglass.

The latest leg down pushed Bitcoin below $19,511, the high the coin hit during its last bull cycle in 2017, which it reached at the end of that year. Throughout its roughly 12-year trading history, Bitcoin has never dropped below previous cycle peaks.

Altcoins were no exception to soured investor appetite in the wake of Bitcoin’s fall, with every token on Bloomberg’s cryptocurrency monitor trading in the red. Cardano, Solana,