Bitcoin Plunges below $43,000, Crypto Market Loses $200 Billion

Bitcoin has started 2022 under extreme selling pressure. The crypto asset has plunged by more than 12% in the first 6 days of the year. The recent correction on Wednesday has pushed the price of the digital asset below $43,000.

Bitcoin holders took a major hit yesterday after BTC dropped by more than 7% within two hours. Overall, the crypto market cap dipped by more than $200 billion in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT) dropped by more than 10% in the mentioned period.

SOL was the hardest hit digital asset among the top 10 in the last 24 hours. The crypto asset lost almost 13% of its value and reached a low of $147. In terms of percentage loss, altcoins have dropped more than Bitcoin since yesterday.

“Bitcoin briefly fell below $43k for the first time since September before showing a current mildly encouraging bounce. Both the SP500, along with gold, have also tumbled and appear to be quite correlative currently,” the crypto analytics platform, Santiment noted.

Crypto Liquidations

Due to the latest plunge in the crypto market, liquidations have surged to record levels. According to the data published by Coinglass, more than $700 million worth of long crypto trading positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours. The number includes the liquidation of approximately $300 million worth of long Bitcoin positions. Moreover, Ethereum, SOL, XRP and DOGE have witnessed major liquidations since yesterday. ETH came in second with the liquidation of over $150 million worth of long trading positions, followed by Solana and XRP. A total of 208,000 trading positions have been liquidated in the last 24 hours.

“With a balance of both bull and bear signals at hand, our expectations into the start of 2022 are likely continued sideways consolidation,” Glassnode highlighted in its latest report.