Bitcoin dived below $15,600 Wednesday night to Thursday for the first time since the end of 2020. Over the past 24 hours, BTC lost 9.5%. At the moment of writing, the coin traded at about $16,419. Bitcoin's market cap stands at $323.3 billion, or 38.84% of the total crypto market cap.

According to CoinMarketCap, yesterday BTC reached an intraday high of $18,584.

The leading cryptocurrency lost 18.57% of its value last week, with its weekly high being $21,464 and the weekly low being $16,729.

Bitcoin declined this weej following the news that Binance Holdings, Ltd. plans to acquire the FTX.com exchange. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, stated that FTX requested the company's help due to the significant liquidity crunch. "To protect users, we signed a non-binding letter of intent, intending to fully acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch," Binance announced. The amount of losses FTX's clients have sustained is yet unknown.

However, Binance suddenly walked away from the FTX acquisition deal on Wednesday. The crypto exchange's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that hopes to save the company are fading.

BTC also came under pressure from the fall in the US stock market. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.95%, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite decreased by 2.48%.

Since the beginning of 2022, analysts have increasingly noted the high level of correlation between US equities and digital assets as market players await the consequences of the conflict in Eastern Europe and the Federal Reserve's further policy moves.

Earlier, analysts at Arcane Research stated Bitcoin's correlation to tech stocks reached the highest level since July 2020.

Economists at TradingView estimated the level of correlation between the crypto market and the US stock market in the previous quarter at 70%.

Originally, the cryptocurrency was presented as a hedge against inflation and price fluctuations in regular financial markets, which makes Bitcoin's current situation rather ironic. The increased correlation between digital assets and the stock market has put the cryptocurrency's success into doubt.

Altcoin market

Ethereum, Bitcoin's main competitor in the crypto market, also declined early on Thursday, losing 9.7% yesterday and dipping below $1,100 overnight. At the moment of writing, ETH was trading at $1,184. The market cap of ETH stands at $141.9 billion, or 17.05% of the crypto market cap.

According to CoinMarketCap, over the past 24 hours, ETH hit an intraday low of $1,141 and an intraday high of $1,337.

Last week's worst performing cryptocurrency out of the top 10 digital assets was BNB, which declined by 1.43%.

ETH slumped by 19.19% on Wednesday in its biggest fall since May 2021. Over the past week, the leading cryptocurrency lost 24.46%.

Out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, all coins suffered losses with the exception of some stablecoins. The worst performing assets were Polygon (-26.5%) and Cardano (-16.5%).

Over the past week, the worst performing cryptocurrency out of the top 10 was Solana (-49.23%).

According to CoinGecko, out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest losers over the past 24 hours were FTX (-73.11%), Solana (-22%), and BNB Coin (-12.1%).

FTX also suffered the biggest losses over the past week, plunging by 90%.

The total cryptocurrency market cap tumbled by 9% to $874 billion.

The market cap has declined almost three-fold from November 2021, when it stood at more than $3 trillion.