It is no secret that, since 2017, the crypto community has experienced a marked and sustainable growth, with numerous ICO projects being born every day and known digital tokens establishing and settling in. However, that doesn’t mean that it is a perfect environment.
The crypto market saw a substantial fall this week when the total market cap dropped $12 billion in an hour. Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, nearly all of them experienced a decline in value, causing concern among the industry insiders and investors alike.
In addition to the hour-long collapse, the total market cap in the crypto market seemed to continue a downward pattern and resulting in another plummeting. The cap is now $222 billion, a noticeable change from the $240 billion it was yesterday.
Goldman Sachs’ Decision May Be Behind the Fall
Possible reasons for the drop off in the price of several top digital tokens, including Bitcoin, have begun to fly around the community. The most prominent one is Goldman Sachs’ decision to drop plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk.
According to Business Insider, and citing several sources with knowledge of the situation, the widely famous firm is abandoning its plans to open a trading desk for digital tokens because the regulatory environment isn’t the best at the moment.
The investment bank and financial services company has toyed with the idea of launching an innovative trading operation focusing on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, it has determined that right now is not the time, a development that has dramatically affected the market.
Goldman Sachs declined to confirm Business Insider’s information, releasing a statement saying that they are still “exploring” how to best serve their digital assets offerings. “We have not reached a conclusion,” read the text.
Initially, Goldman Sachs had planned to create a crypto-focused unit by June of this year. Skepticism began to float around when date approached and passed without the materialization of the dream.
Bitcoin Fell Under the $7,000 Threshold
Bitcoin, the world’s most prominent digital asset, didn’t escape the price decline that happened this Wednesday. The cryptocurrency fell below the $7,000 mark and was trading at $6,996 at the time of this writing, which would represent a 5% value loss in the last day. By Tuesday night, the token was at $7,400.
However, and despite the change in value for the worse, Bitcoin managed to augment its dominance over altcoins by increasing one percentage point to reach 54.3%, which is the highest it has been in the last two weeks. Ethereum is a distant second with 11.78%.
One of the most affected tokens was Ethereum, which once again dropped below the $300 point. ETH is currently trading at exactly $258, which is an alarming 11 percent fall in the last 24 hours.
Other significant altcoins experienced losses between 9 and 12 percentage points, including Ripple (11 percent,) Bitcoin Cash (10.2 percent,) and EOS (10.9 percent.) Bitcoin Gold fell 4.6%, but Bitcoin Diamond increased a whopping 110% growth.
By Andrés Chávez
