Bitcoin, Ethereum Plummet as Crypto Market Falls Below $1 Trillion Overnight

The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum has plummeted in the past 24 hours, with the total crypto market cap now sitting at $914 billion, a 10.6%  drop in the last 24 hours.

According to CoinGecko, Ethereum’s price now sits at around $1,229, a 17% fall in the last 24 hours. This now places the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at 74.1% from its historical high of $4,878.26 in November 2021.

Bitcoin fared somewhat better, falling nearly 10% to $17,809. 

Binance’s proposed purchase of FTX has likely been one of the driving factors behind these market moves. 

On Sunday, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that he would begin selling the firm’s FTT holdings from an earlier equity position in FTX in 2019. FTT is FTX’s native token that holders can use to enjoy discounts and other perks. 

The move sparked panic in the market, leading to mass withdrawals from FTX, until on Tuesday, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried announced a tentative agreement to be acquired by Binance. 

FTX, politics and crypto

It’s not just FTX’s recent troubles that could be impacting current crypto prices. 

The U.S. presidential midterms, which saw voters opt for and against candidates with widely different views on crypto regulation, could also be impacting the prices of the two most popular tokens.

Though there is widespread disagreement within the two major political parties about how crypto regulation should be approached, certain candidates considered more pro-crypto have attracted significant donations from the industry.

Democratic candidate for Illinois Jonathan Jackson, who recently declared victory, attracted well over $1 million in donations from the crypto industry, including from Bankman-Fried himself. 

Despite today’s eye-popping statistics, this isn’t by any means the worst day in the history of the two largest currencies. 

GlobalCovid-19 restrictions set in place on March 12, 2022, triggered a 37.14% one-day fall in the price of Bitcoin and 42% drop for Ethereum.

The collapse of controversial crypto lender Celsius’s market on June 14, 2022, led to a 12% loss for Bitcoin and an 8% loss for Ethereum.

Still, holders of the two flagship currencies massively outperformed anyone holding FTX’s FTT tokens over the past week. 

FTT fell 75.4% to just $4.37 in the past 24 hours, for a total weekly collapse of -83.1%.