Bitcoin Dives Below $22K as Altcoins Take a Beating (Market Watch)

For the past 24 hours, the entire cryptocurrency market has been in the red, with few exceptions. The price of Bitcoin even dipped below $22K after the US Federal Reserve Chairman’s speech yesterday.

That said, altcoins are faring much worse than BTC, with many of them showing substantial declines.

Bitcoin slides below $22K

The price of Bitcoin has dropped below $22,000 several times since yesterday and is currently trading around that level (on Binance).

The price started falling a few days ago, but the move was compounded after yesterday’s speech by Jerome Powell to Congress. Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, he suggested that the Federal Reserve is likely to raise key interest rates more than previously expected.

The latest economic data is stronger than expected, suggesting that the eventual interest rate level is likely to be higher than previously expected. – said Powell.

This sent the market on a rollercoaster ride as the price dipped below $22K, only to recover moments later. From there, however, BTC continued to fall and is currently trading around that important level.

Altcoins have it worse

As shown in the following heatmap, many altcoins are trading well in the red, with some showing significant declines.

For example, OKB is down as much as 12% in the last 24 hours, followed by Solana, which is down about 6%. These are the worst performers of the top cryptocurrencies by total market cap, but it gets even scarier between the smaller coins like AGIX, STX, and Optimism’s OP token, all of which are down close to 10% on the day.

There are of course some exceptions to the above. CFX is up 4.5% while XRP is also showing a small increase of around 3.5%.

Sentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market remains neutral, according to the Fear and Greed Index. In fact, it’s even slightly improved from yesterday, which is quite interesting given the current decline.