The crypto market saw further selling pressure at the start of Monday’s trading session, as traders considered recent events from the weekend. Bitcoin and most crypto assets are in the red, continuing Sunday’s sell-off. XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) were not exempt from the bearish sentiment and were recording losses at press time.
The decline has wiped off $249 million in liquidations across various crypto assets within the last 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Bullish bets from traders expecting prices to rebound after Saturday’s sell-off that saw $556 million in crypto liquidations accounted for the majority, totaling $200 million; shorts liquidation amounted to $48.67 million in the last 24 hours.
While Bitcoin was down 0.6% in the last 24 hours, trading above $95,000, alternative cryptocurrencies, referred to as altcoins, were hit harder, with some losing up to 12%. Solana-based Raydium plunged over 31% in the last 24 hours; XRP has also experienced a decrease, erasing previous gains.
At the time of writing, XRP was down 4.1% in the last 24 hours to $2.49, dropping to fourth place in the crypto market rankings with a market capitalization of $142.8 billion.
Solana (SOL), which has been underperforming recently, continued its sell-off; in the early Monday session, SOL was leading losses among the top 10 cryptos, down 8.11% in the last 24 hours to $157. Cardano (ADA) was trading at $0.733 as of press time, down 5.89% on the day.
Recent events contributing to market sell-off
Early gains in cryptos and crypto-related stocks first took a hit from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack on Friday. The hack targeted one of Bybit’s offline “cold” wallets, which are normally regarded as secure due to their lack of internet connectivity, resulting in the theft of $1.4 billion in Ethereum.
Hackers obtained access by exploiting a sophisticated method that included a manipulated user interface (UI) and URL. This allowed the attackers to change the smart contract logic and redirect the funds to an unknown address. The stolen assets were subsequently distributed among several wallets and traded on decentralized exchanges.
On Friday, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index unexpectedly fell to 64.7, compared to estimates of 67.8, causing equities to fall. Inflation forecasts in the same survey increased to 3.5%, up from 3.3% previously.
The continued profit-taking on the market suggests traders might be selling on rallies as bearish sentiment persists.
