Bitcoin’s price has plummeted to its lowest point of the week, dropping below $26,000, erasing all its recent gains. This decline comes after Grayscale’s victory in a legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The market is closely watching the cryptocurrency’s movement as it continues to experience volatility.
Bitcoin’s Price Drops Below $26,000 Following Grayscale’s Legal Victory
Bitcoin’s recent surge above $28,000 was short-lived as the cryptocurrency has now fallen below $26,000. The drop in value comes after Grayscale’s legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in a win for the asset manager. Following the court’s decision, BTC experienced a rapid increase of over $2,000 within hours, reaching a multi-week high of $28,000. However, the rally was short-lived, and the cryptocurrency started losing value shortly after reaching its peak. By yesterday morning, BTC had already retraced $1,000 from its high point. Later that night, it experienced another significant drop, losing approximately $1,500 within an hour and reaching a weekly low of $25,700.
Despite a slight recovery since then, bitcoin is still trading just below $26,000 and is down by approximately 5% for the day. Its market capitalization has also decreased to $505 billion, and its dominance over other altcoins has dropped to 48.4%.
Altcoins Follow Suit with Price Declines
Not only bitcoin but many altcoins have also experienced price declines in the past 24 hours. Ethereum, for example, reached a high of $1,750 during its recent rally but has now retraced back to around $1,650. Other cryptocurrencies such as Binance Coin, Ripple, Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana, and Shiba Inu have all experienced losses ranging from 3% to 5%. Even larger altcoins like Polkadot, Polygon, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash have slumped by 5% to 7%.
Despite these declines, a few altcoins have managed to buck the trend and achieve minor gains. TONCOIN, Tron, and MKR are among the few exceptions, with MKR even experiencing an increase of over 6%.
As a result of the overall market decline, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped by $40 billion within a day and is now back at approximately $1.050 trillion.