Cryptocurrency Market Slips Below Its Trillion Dollar Valuation For The First Time Since January 2021

On Monday, the value of the cryptocurrency market declined from its $1 trillion mark. According to CoinMarketCap, the value of the cryptocurrency market stood at $926 billion as of Monday morning. It is relevant to know that the market capitalization decline from “trillion” to “billion” is the market’s first since January of 2021.

As of November last year, the entire cryptocurrency market got to a peak of $2.9 trillion but sadly, the market has continued to witness fluctuations and other challenges such as inflation and governments’ efforts at regulations, causing the market capitalization to continue to fall. In the last two months alone, the market saw about $1 trillion of its value wiped off as investors continue to fear the risks associated with high inflation, interest rates, and other macroeconomic challenges.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has recorded an 18-month low of $23,750 and is currently trading below $25,750 as predictions for the cryptocurrency continue to unfold. According to Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said that “As inflation proves to be an even trickier opponent to beat than expected, Bitcoin and Ether are continuing to get a severe bruising in the ring. They are prime victims of the flight away from risky assets as investors fret about spiraling consumer prices around the world.”

The cryptocurrency market’s slip below its trillion-value mark comes on the heels of it losing $150 billion over the weekend.  “We could see much lower Bitcoin prices over the next month or two,” Vice President of Corporate Development and International at crypto exchange Luno Vijay Ayyar said quite recently.  He also said the recent development with cryptocurrency lender Celsius added fuel to the fire burning the cryptocurrency market. Celsius announced on Monday that it was halting withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on its platforms as a result of extreme market conditions. “The Celsius situation is definitely adding fuel to the fire. Broadly the markets were already under pressure from inflation concerns and the interest rate hikes, but with crypto, such contagion events could cause outsized declines, given the market is tightly interlinked these days with a variety of inter-connected protocols and businesses,” he said.