coindesk.com
Bitcoin's (BTC) recent drop below the $30,000 level sent smaller cryptocurrencies tumbling Wednesday afternoon.
BTC's price fell to as low as $29,874, a 2.2% decline over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. The decline led to a sudden sell-off in altcoin – short for alternative cryptocurrencies – markets, which suffered 5-10% drops from Tuesday, same time.
The Optimism network's OP token recently fell 10%, while Cardano's ADA, Polygon's MATIC and Avalanche's AVAX suffered the largest falloffs among the top 20 cryptocurrencies, losing 6%, 7.7% and 8%, respectively.
Altcoins' underperformance extended BTC's grip over the broader digital asset market. The BTC Dominance Rate, which shows the largest cryptocurrency's share in the total crypto market, soared above the 52% level for the first time since April 2021, according to TradingView data.