The larger cryptocurrency market is down 6%, headed by a strong drop in the altcoin category. It’s yet another day of carnage on Satoshi Street. The Ethereum (ETH) price meltdown has worsened, with ETH now trading below $1,800.
At the time of writing, the price of ETH had dropped further 9% to $1770. With this, ETH has lost more than 50% of its value year to far, wiping out more than $200 billion in investor wealth. The most recent ETH price drop is due to concerns about the stability of the impending ‘The Merge’ update.
The ETH gas fee, on the other hand, plummeted to $2.54 earlier this week and is expected to fall even further. Santiment, an on-chain data supplier, reported:
“Ethereum continues to show extreme low fee levels, indicating very minimal activity and hints of stagnancy and fear. This #hibernation behavior also applies to $ETH‘s often paired #stablecoin, $DAI. Read our insight on #DAI‘s velocity as a top signal.”
Apart from Ethereum, altcoins from other blockchain networks that serve the decentralized finance industry have seen more significant corrections in the recent 24 hours. In the previous 24 hours, Solana (SOL) has dropped 12% while Avalanche (AVAX) has corrected by 18%.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, DeFi players have been increasingly cautious as a result of the Terra crash.
BNB, Cardano, and Polkadot are among the other famous altcoins that are down 8-9% each. In the midst of all the volatility in the cryptocurrency industry, Bitcoin has fared rather well, with only a 2% fall.