The cryptocurrency market reached $2.5 trillion in total capitalization on Wednesday, May 12. Ethereum became the main driver of the previous week, while the rest of the assets were in narrow corridors and could not overcome psychological boundaries to continue to grow. The lack of progress in most major cryptocurrencies has alerted the market, and huge leaps in coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have only made matters worse. The wait-and-see position of the market was cut off on Thursday when the BTC/USD quotes fell by 15% per day and dragged the entire market with them. As a result, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization fell by 12.5% to $2.2 trillion.
Ethereum, which has recently become more expensive and easily passed local corrections, retreated from the historical record. As of May 13, the asset is quoted at $3,760 and fell by 11.7% per day. At the same time, the process of reducing quotes is accompanied by sharply increased daily trading volumes, which amount to $96.5 billion. In addition to the impending correction and the sudden fall of bitcoin, ethereum was already getting close to the dangerous mark, where the market resistance began. In addition, a 530% increase in commissions in the crowded ETH network, as well as a disappointing report from JPMorgan experts, also caused a drop in interest in the cryptocurrency. At the same time, such a sharp drop in quotes goes beyond the predicted situation, which indicates its spontaneity and lightning speed. Most likely, ethereum will return to growth, strengthened by new market participants who entered the asset, hoping for its further growth.
Ripple token showed a more significant decline in comparison with BTC and ETH. The asset confidently held within safe positions in the area of $1.40, however, a sharp drop in the entire market led to a decrease in XRP/USD quotes by 11.7%. As of 12:00 UTC, the cryptocurrency is quoted at $1.30 and shows extremely negative statistics of price changes over the past few hours (-5%). Shortly, the asset will be able to return to its usual positions, as positive signals are gradually returning to the cryptocurrency market.
A similar situation is observed with Litecoin, which tried to break out of the $370 limit, but constantly failed. The sharp decline in the crypto market led to a 16% decline in asset quotes. Of all the major cryptocurrencies, LTC fell the hardest. As of 12:00 UTC, Litecoin is quoted at $316, and the coin needs to gain a foothold above the challenging $330 mark soon, where strong market resistance is concentrated. The dynamics of price changes over the past hours also remain negative (-3.4%), which indicates a continuation of the correction to the nearest support level.
The current market drop is caused by a sudden factor in the face of Elon Musk, who announced Tesla's refusal to accept bitcoin as payment for its services. The SEC representatives added negativity, who stated about the risks associated with bitcoin futures. Another circumstance that strengthened the correction was the achievement of the $2.5 trillion mark in the cryptocurrency market in total capitalization. The combination of circumstances, as well as the shaken reputation of the entire market, which resulted in distrust and caution of major market players, caused the market to collapse by 12.5%. Given the current situation, there are no good reasons for the start of a protracted correction and a bearish trend, but the market needs a push to return to its usual positions. This impulse may well be a statement from the American online platform eBay, which allowed users to trade NTF's.
