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Ethereum Price Leads Morning Retreat as Market Dips Below $400 Billion

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:06 PM
Josiah Wilmoth
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:06 PM

The cryptocurrency markets made an early morning retreat on Wednesday, pressing pause on its extended bull run. The Ethereum price led the retreat with a nine percent decline, and altogether nine of the 10 largest coins and tokens lost value against the dollar, while four posted double-digit declines.

ethereum price
Source: CoinMarketCap

The major price action began Wednesday morning at approximately 2:30 UTC when the cryptocurrency market cap was valued at $434 billion. Over the next two-and-a-half hours, the market shed $30 billion, and — despite a brief recovery — continued to decline throughout the morning. At present, the cryptocurrency market cap is valued at just $393 billion, representing an intraday decline of 9.4 percent.

It’s not immediately clear what caused the bulls to run out of steam, though it may be a simple matter of traders who bought at the bear market’s bottom taking profits following this week’s rapid recovery, which had seen the cryptocurrency market cap swell by more than $100 billion.

bitcoin price
Source: CoinMarketCap

Both single-day and one-hour price movements have moved into negative territory across the board, though the retreat has disproportionately affected altcoins.

Indeed, the Bitcoin price declined just one percent for the day, beating the index by more than eight percent and raising its market share back above 39 percent. Bitcoin is now trading at a global average of $9,168.

The Ethereum price declined by more than nine percent just hours after piercing $700 for the first time in more than a month, and the second-largest cryptocurrency is now valued at $621.

The Ripple and Bitcoin Cash prices fared even worse, plunging 13 percent and 16 percent, respectively, to $0.80 and $1,276.

EOS was the lone cryptocurrency among the market’s top-tier that managed to keep its head above the water for the day, though the token has plunged by nearly four percent in the past hour alone.

The remaining top 10-cryptocurrencies exhibited similar one-hour declines while also posting 24-hour retreats of between eight percent and 14 percent.

Nevertheless, investors have ample reason not to panic. Despite the single-day pullback, every top 10-cryptocurrency remains in positive territory for the week, and six have risen by at least 10 percent.

Featured image from Shutterstock.