beincrypto.com
The altcoin market witnessed a major crash early on the morning of June 10. In 24 hours, major altcoins, including Algorand (ALGO), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL), saw their trading price tumble by over 20%.
At the time of writing, three altcoins, Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL), had lost more than 20% in the space of 24 hours.
Altcoin Market Hits a Wall
For a brief period on Saturday morning, Algorand also joined that unenviable club. The token even hit a new all-time low of below $0.10 after it lost around 17% of its value in a single hour.
However, shortly after, it regained some of its early morning losses.
With altcoin prices crashing, liquidations accelerated to rates not seen in months. And while much of the attention is focused on long ETH positions, it’s likely that many traders betting on altcoins prices going up were caught in the storm.
Tokens Named in SEC Lawsuits Tank
Unsurprisingly, many observers are blaming the latest wave of devaluations on the news earlier this week that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought charges against Binance and Coinbase.
Algorand (ALGO), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) were all among the tokens cited in the SEC’s lawsuits that it considers securities.
After a few days, the price of tokens named in the SEC’s lawsuits had already taken a beating. By Thursday, Polygon’s price was down 15%. If the beginning of the week was defined by a slow-burning bearish move, Saturday morning saw the altcoin market tank.
Bitcoin Dominance Soars
One consequence of the dramatic collapse in altcoin prices is that Bitcoin has taken a larger share of the overall crypto market. This has allowed Bitcoin’s dominance climbing even higher than it already was.
Sure, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have witnessed their market cap shrink during the previous seven days. But compared to other tokens, their prices have remained relatively stable.
Even after the past week’s events, BTC is still trading above March 2023 prices. Meanwhile, the likes of ADA and SOL have hit lows not seen since January.
The relative resilience of Bitcoin certainly gives credit to the argument that the SEC lawsuits are behind the altcoin market crash. The SEC didn’t name either Bitcoin or Ethereum as subject to securities law. For now, at least, their status in that respect appears secure.
Whether or not the altcoin market crash continues over the weekend remains to be seen. By midday on Saturday, the biggest losers had already bounced back somewhat. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to claw back their losses any time soon. Likewise, further losses could also be in store.