Crypto Crash Update: Bitcoin breaks below $19,000, Ethereum crashes 10% to $1,300, & Other Top Crypto Prices in the Red!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Top crypto tokens by market cap – Bitcoin price is down about 5.8% trading over $18,800, Ethereum price close to $1300, down about 10.2%.
2. Global crypto market cap down about -6.2% in past 24 hours, currently at about $910 billion.
3. Top crypto news – VC firm a16z believes Ethereum is ‘far superior now than it ever was’, ETH miners flood other PoW coin markets and drive mining profitability to the ground and the Ripple vs SEC case is headed for conclusion with the ‘summary judgement’ filed.

CRYPTO MARKET TODAY AT A GLANCE

CRYPTO CRASH – MARKET OVERVIEW

Total Crypto Market Cap | Source: Tradingview

The last eight days in the crypto market has been a total bloodbath. Starting from the crash on 13 September, amid fear, uncertainty and doubt over the US Fed rate hike and the following consumer price index (CPI) numbers that came in way beyond expected values. And especially with the final execution of the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge on 15 September, Ethereum price has been leading the doward fall ever since. A closer look at the above chart clearly depicts how much trouble crypto prices could be in right now. Overall, over $65 billion were eroded from the crypto market in the past 24 hours.

Technically, crypto price has broken down below the crucial trendline support level (marked in orange). It had remained a strong level of support in the past but with crypto price trading below that line over the past six days now, we could see further selling pressures coming in. Crypto price is also trading well below the 50 day moving average (marked in cyan) along with the Relative Strength Index close to 35 as of writing. Thus all of these indicators point to bearishness in the overall crypto market and thus things can be expected to be worrisome going forward.

TOTAL VOLUME IN DEFI

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the total volume in DeFi is currently $5.12 billion, 7.15% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $65.03 billion, which is 90.82% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

And, according to DeFiLlama, the total-value-locked in DeFi as of writing this stands around $52.5 billion, down about 4.5% in the past 24-hours.

TOP CRYPTOS TODAY BY MARKET CAP

Bitcoin Price Crashed below $19000 Today!

BTC/USD | Source: Tradingview

Bitcoin price, which had been doing slightly better than Ethereum price post the Merge, it seems now over the weekend, Bitcoin is attempting to match Ethereum's bearishness. Bitcoin has now once again fallen down to its long term trendline support (marked in black). BTC price has fallen down below its psychological support price level of $20,000, and is even below $19,000 level. This could bring about further bearishness in the king coin going forward.

From a technical point of view, things look very bearish, as mentioned earlier. The news surrounding the CPI numbers has hit the king coin very hard. Bitcoin price has now once again reached its lowest point of 2022 (marked in black). Four times in the past it has served as a region of support but it is yet to see if it can do so again. It is trading well below the 50 day moving average (marked in cyan) and its nearest trendline resistance (marked in blue). And with the Relative Strength Index currently running even below 40, we may see some added selling pressures coming in.

Additional Read: Bitcoin Price Prediction

ETH/USD | Source: Tradingview

Post the Ethereum Merge, Ethereum price has been one of the worst hit tokens amongst the largest cryptos by market cap. On the charts, it has lost over 20% since the Merge and is still strongly going downward. It lost over 8% on the day of the Ethereum Merge and over the past 24 hours, it has lost well over 10%! This is a very significant fall in terms of absolute values and ETH price has fallen well below the crucial psychological price level of $1500 and is currently trading close to $1300, a far cry from the $2000 it had managed to touch just a few weeks ago.

Technically speaking, over the weekend ETH price broke down below the entire descending triangle (marked in blue) and is just inches away from its farthest logical trendline support (marked in black). And with the ETH price far below the 50 day moving average and the Relative Strength Index currently below 35, we will see strong selling pressures building that could push prices further down.

Additional Read: Ethereum Price Prediction

OTHER ALTCOINS

RIPPLE (XRP)

Ripple (XRP) price lost about 6.6% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.34 - with a current market cap of $17.17 billion as of writing.

CARDANO (ADA)

Cardano (ADA) price lost about 9.3% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.44 - with a current market cap of $14.98 billion as of writing.

POLYGON (MATIC)

Polygon (MATIC) price lost about 9.7% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.74 - with a current market cap of $6.45 billion as of writing.

SHIBA INU (SHIB)

Shiba Inu (SHIB) price lost about 9.6% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.0000108 - with a current market cap of $5.87 billion as of writing.

COSMOS (ATOM)

Cosmos (ATOM) price gained about 5.9% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $15.2 - with a current market cap of $4.3 billion as of writing.

TOP CRYPTO NEWS TODAY

1. A16Z SAYS ETHEREUM 'IS FAR SUPERIOR NOW THAN EVER BEFORE'

A couple of days after the the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge took place, transitioning the second largest crypto from a PoW based consensus model to a PoS based consensus mechanism, major venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) said it believed that Ethereum 'is a far superior blockchain now that it was ever before'. In a blog published by a16z right after the Merge, the author called the Merge “an insane feat” since this upgrade “involved hot-swapping the most important component of Ethereum’s architecture – its consensus mechanism – *while it was running*.

2. ETH MINERS FLOOD MARKETS, SHOOTS UP HASHRATES IN OTHER POW CHAINS

The mass exodus of Ethereum based mining rigs suddenly flooding into the market has resulted in all sorts of chaos in the market. As a result of these miners suddenly turning to mining on the other small PoW based cryptos, profits from mining on these platforms have turned negative as these miners have flooded the hashrates of these other coins. The reason is because Ethereum based miners used to process data which was magnitudes higher than what these smaller coins do and hence sudden influx of these heavyweight miners into these coins have driven profitability into the ground.

3. RIPPLE VS SEC CASE SET TO CONCLUDE WITH sSUMMARY JUDGEMENT' FILED

The long running court battle between the US Securities & Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs have called for a federal judge to provide an immediate ruling on the case whether XRP's ICO sale violated US securities' laws or not. Typically, summary judgments are submitted to the courts when a party involved believes there’s enough evidence at hand to make a ruling without the need to proceed to trial.

Today's filings make it clear the SEC isn’t interested in applying the law. They want to remake it all in an impermissible effort to expand their jurisdiction far beyond the authority granted to them by Congress. https://t.co/ooPPle3QjI

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) September 17, 2022

TOP CRYPTO GAINERS TODAY

**As of writing, there aren't any gainers out of the top 100 cryptos by market cap.

TOP CRYPTO LOSERS TODAY

Prices as of 19th September, 2022.