Crypto Market Woes: Bitcoin Drops 9% as $250 Billion Wiped Out in a Week

The cryptocurrency market has faced significant turbulence this week, with Bitcoin leading the downturn, sliding by nearly 9% and briefly dipping below the $58,000 mark for the third time in recent days.

This downturn isn't limited to Bitcoin, as altcoins have also suffered substantial losses, with red figures dominating both daily and weekly performance charts. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has shed over $250 billion since last Sunday, reflecting widespread sell-offs.

Bitcoin’s recent price trajectory surprised many after the cryptocurrency reached a high of $64,000 last weekend, followed by a further climb to a three-week peak of just over $65,100 on Monday. However, this bullish momentum was short-lived as bearish forces took control, sending the price plummeting to $58,000 by midweek, wiping out $7,000 in value.

By Friday, Bitcoin had dipped further to $57,750 after struggling to maintain a foothold above the $60,000 level on Thursday. Despite efforts to recover, Bitcoin has faced repeated resistance at $59,000, resulting in another slip below $58,000 just hours ago. While it has since rebounded slightly above this level, Bitcoin remains down 1.2% on the day and nearly 9% for the week.

The cryptocurrency's market capitalization has dropped to $1.150 trillion, though its dominance over altcoins has increased to 53.9%. This rising dominance amidst Bitcoin's decline suggests that altcoins are experiencing even harsher losses.

Among the larger-cap altcoins, Solana and Avalanche have been the hardest hit, each plummeting more than 15% to $132 and $22, respectively.

While Telegram Open Network (TON) has shown slight weekly gains, this is misleading due to the significant drop following the arrest of Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, last Saturday. Meanwhile, Fetch.ai (FET) stands out as one of the few larger-cap cryptocurrencies with actual gains over the past week.