Cryptocurrencies fell today along with the broader stock market.
Among major tokens, Ether performed particularly poorly, falling 5%.
SOL/ETH hit a new all-time high, while ETH/BTC made new lows.
Cryptocurrencies fell on Wednesday alongside a drop in traditional markets overall.
The CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, excluding stablecoins and exchange-traded currencies — is down 2.6% over the past 24 hours, with Chainlink LINK the worst performer, down 7.6%. The only project to buck the downward trend was Internet Computer ICP, which rose 1%.
Bitcoin BTC fell 2.3% to $66,000, while ether ETH plunged 5.3%, taking its price back below $2,490. Solana SOL, meanwhile, showed more strength today – at press time, the coin was steady at $169.
$SOL continuously rising even while bitcoin was falling,#soltrading at 174$, 180-190$ is the strong sell area for sol, if markets continue in a downtrend we may see sol below 160$.
ETH not only made new lows against BTC – the ETH/BTC ratio fell below 0.038 for the first time since April 2021 – but also against SOL. The SOL/ETH trading pair hit a new all-time high as it rose 6.3% to 0.068 amid renewed debate in the crypto community about the wisdom behind Ethereum's roadmap.
“Much of the negative sentiment and questions surrounding Ethereum’s roadmap are due to recent underperformance against BTC and SOL,” Brian Rudick, director of research at crypto trading firm GSR, posted on X.
“However, this is a poor comparison, as BTC and SOL have been subjected to two major idiosyncratic events,” Rudick wrote, namely the immense success of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the impact of the FTX collapse – and the resurgence of Solana from the ashes – in the perception of investors.
“Measuring from crypto’s ATH market cap in November 2021 to remove [FTX’s collapse], it shows that ETH and SOL performed [roughly] the same,” Rudick added.
The upcoming US election, just two weeks away, didn’t appear to offer any assistance. Even with crypto-friendly Donald Trump in the lead (based on betting markets), and Vice President Kamala Harris appearing less adversarial towards crypto than the current administration, markets will have a hard time “moving higher ahead of Election Day,” Joe Edwards, head of research at digital asset brokerage Enigma Securities, wrote in a research note.
Uncertainty in the broader market⚠️📈📉
The drop on Wednesday was not limited to crypto. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones were each down more than 1% just before the end of the session as prices consolidated after strong rallies in recent months.
The bond market was also bearish, with the 10-year Treasury yield rising to a three-month high of 4.25%. Making record highs virtually every day lately, gold also retreated, falling 1.1% to $2,730 an ounce. The price of oil fell 1.35% to US$70.77 per barrel.
“Don’t worry guys, Tesla will save the market when it releases earnings,” Ram Ahluwalia, CEO of crypto investment advisory Lumida Wealth, posted on X. “Overall, I’d say we’re closer to the end of this longer-lasting higher price movement… November looks pretty good in my opinion.”
Tesla is set to report its quarterly results after the market closes this afternoon.
Crypto stocks felt the brunt of the pullback. Bitcoin miners were hit the hardest, with MARA Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) each down about 5%. Coinbase (COIN) plunged 6% and MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell 2.5%.