Bitcoin falls to $22,000 and Ethereum to $1,500

• The crypto market is undergoing a major bearish slump as Bitcoin and Ethereum claws back gains.
• Despite the outlook, investors can avoid FUD and trust market resilience.

The crypto market and broader Web3.0 ecosystem is currently undergoing a massive valuation crash as there is an ongoing and broad-based selloff across the board. The combined crypto market cap is down by 3.80% to $1.03 trillion as triggered by the more than 4% drop in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) to peg the premier cryptocurrency’s spot value at $22,395.35.

The reasons for the current crypto crash are not farfetched considering how the ecosystem has been seeing one form of negative headwind or the other to date. Top market analyst and commentator, Miles Deutscher highlighted some of these headwinds including the United States Stock market weakness, and the current uncertainty surrounding Silvergate Capital, the parent company of popular crypto financial firm, Silvergate Bank.

Crypto headwinds are starting to pile up, and may explain the reason for the recent sell-off.

• Mt. Gox $BTC unlock
• Silvergate
• Shanghai $ETH unlock
• Hot CPI (50bps now a real possibility)
• Asia selling open
• Mass liquidations
• Stock market weakness (futures red)

— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) March 3, 2023

According to current reports, Silvergate refused to release its latest performance report as it made comments regarding the need to get its accounting processes right. The crypto bank is known to be the primary banking partner to the now-bankrupt crypto trading firm FTX Derivatives Exchange.

Even though Silvergate has refuted claims of any negative exposure to the exchange, investors have been approaching its stock with caution since last year. This current highlight only compounded the industry’s fears about the financial woes of the company.

The MtGox victims may also soon start getting back a good portion of their funds that has been locked away on the Japanese exchange which became defunct as far back as 2011. With thousands of Bitcoin set to be released, the speculation has continued to grow that many beneficiaries will sell off their bags in a bid to claw back some funds that the current crypto winter has taken.

Crypto Crash also has Ethereum Undertone

While Bitcoin can be tagged as the primary driver of the ongoing bearish slump, Ethereum and the events surrounding its ecosystem also has a major role to play. The Ethereum protocol migrated from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus model back in 2022 and since then, general sentiment on the protocol has grown.

For this transition to be made, validators had to stake at least 32 Ethereum tokens, a commitment that has been made since the fourth quarter of 2020. In one of the latest updates, there are plans to unlock these staked Ethereum through the soon-to-be-released protocol update dubbed the Shanghai Upgrade.

This upgrade will unleash tons of ETH into the market and investors may be forced to offload their coins just like MtGox’s creditors are likely to receive theirs this month. Should these two events happen, it can significantly drive the prices of both assets down by a reasonable percentage.

Ethereum is changing hands at $1,567.58, down 4.45% at the time of writing. Despite the current outlook, investors are expected to keep calm despite the FUD out there, drawing references from the resilience of the market over the past year.

Crypto News Flash does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to cryptocurrencies. Crypto News Flash is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned.