Several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and XRP, suddenly fell on Sunday, leaving investors frustrated. Social media users wondered the reason behind this movement, with some asking: ‘Why are crypto, Bitcoin, and XRP down today?’
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin fell about 3% in the last hour. Ethereum was nearly 4%, and XRP more than 5% in the same time frame. These figures were recorded at the time of writing this story.
“$BTC drops thousands in a matter of minutes, wiping lots of levered accounts along the way. Gotta be honest, if you’re dumb enough to be levered long Bitcoin here, you had to expect this,” one person wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Crypto market just experienced a flash crash,” another one tweeted.
“Over $150,000,000 worth of leveraged crypto positions have been liquidated in the past 60 minutes,” a third person tweeted.
Gold jumps to a record, stock futures slide
This comes after US stock futures slid on Sunday after President Donald Trump threatened to slap extra tariffs on eight European nations until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
European leaders swiftly criticized the move, with Bloomberg reporting that French President Emmanuel Macron may seek to trigger the EU’s anti-coercion instrument, the bloc’s strongest retaliatory mechanism. The trade agreement finalized last year now appears at risk of being shelved.
A holiday in US equity and bond markets made for thin trading and likely contributed to a 0.9% drop in S&P 500 futures and a 1.1% fall in Nasdaq futures. Nikkei futures pointed to a soft start for Asian stocks as well.
Weakness was also expected across Asia-Pacific markets. Futures pointed to declines in Japan and Hong Kong when trading resumes, while Australian shares opened in the red. US stocks had already ended slightly lower on Friday, setting the tone for the week ahead.
“The outcome of these new trade tensions is unclear, but what has long been evident is that there is no such thing as trade or tariff certainty anymore,” analysts including Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Bank, wrote in a note to clients. “What is clear is that a full-blown trade war between the EU and the US would leave only losers.”
(With inputs from Reuters)