Ripple-promoted cryptocurrency XRP, Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Cardano (ADA) nosedived by double-digits on Monday morning, a casualty of a badly bleeding crypto market as Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell under the psychologically important $100,000 level.
BTC’s tumultuous start to the new week apparently caught traders unawares, with the crypto’s sudden plunge triggering roughly $864 million worth of liquidations in 24 hours.
Crypto Carnage Sees $860 Million Liquidations
The new week has started with pain for crypto as traders see no hint of a relief rally coming so far, with all of the top 50 cryptocurrencies, barring stablecoins, posting overnight losses.
Of the top 10 cryptos by market value, Solana’s SOL has taken the biggest blow, while Ripple’s XRP and Cardano (ADA) have also dropped by double digits in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
Over the past day, SOL fell 12% to $223, while Cardano dropped 10.7% to $0.8772. Ripple’s XRP dropped 11% to $2.77, while Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has plunged 7.4% in the past day and roughly 9.2% in a week. And even buoyant meme currencies are in decline, with Dogecoin (DOGE) shedding 11.2% of its value in 24 hours.
Bitcoin (BTC) wasn’t spared either, dropping 5.7% to $98,528 as of press time.
Liquidation data from CoinGlass shows over $864 million wiped out for over 316,301 traders. Bitcoin traders felt the most pain with roughly $247 million in long liquidations, but the real drama came from a single BTC whale on HTX who lost $98.46 million in one shot when their long position got wiped out.
What’s Next: Impending FOMC Meeting
The crypto market mayhem comes ahead of the first U.S. FOMC meeting in 2025. Traders expect no indications of a rate cut at the two-day meeting, which will take place from Jan. 28 to Jan. 29. The Federal Reserve will decide on interest rate change at this meeting.
“$BTC is simply heading down to one end of our range that we’ve been trapped in for the last week, nothing to be freaking out about,” widely-followed crypto analyst Credible Crypto posited in part of his latest post on the X (aka Twitter) platform.
“In fact I’m glad we’re going for the lows first because it’s healthier for us to take liquidity from the lows of this range while leaving liquidity behind at the highs.”
Most observers generally believe the latest bloodshed is a healthy correction rather than the start of a longer downward trend. Bullish sentiment remains strong as Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy and *****’s World Liberty Financial continue accumulating crypto.