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Bloody Friday: Ethereum Price Plunges as Sea of Red Engulfs Crypto Markets

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:58 PM
Josiah Wilmoth
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:58 PM

The crypto markets turned sour on Friday, as five top-10 coins posted weekly losses of at least 9%. The ethereum price bore the brunt of the damage, while bitcoin dipped but managed to stay afloat.

bitcoin price
Chart from CoinMarketCap

The market has spent the last two weeks struggling to stay above $100 billion. That trend continued on Thursday, as the total cryptocurrency market cap briefly crossed the $100 billion mark before taking a southward turn on Friday. At present, the total market cap is $96.1 billion.

ethereum price
Chart from CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin Price Weathers the Storm

The bitcoin price stumbled on Friday, declining 2.8% after rising as high as $2,616 on Thursday. For the week, bitcoin posted a relatively-stable 0.9% decrease to its present value of $2,516. Bitcoin now has a market cap of $41.4 billion.

bitcoin price
7-Day Bitcoin Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

Ethereum Price Erases June Progress

The ethereum price appears to be in a tailspin, plunging 7% for the day and 18% for the week. Since crossing $400 on June 12 in a triumphant advance, the ethereum price has declined by almost 40%. At its present value of $252, ethereum is worth less than it was a month ago.

Ethereum price
30-Day Ethereum Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

Ethereum’s nosedive has reduced its total valuation to $23.5 billion. Ethereum’s market cap is now just 57% as large as bitcoin’s. Ethereum trading volume, which consistently led all coins during June, now trails bitcoin by more than $250 million.

IOTA, BitShares Lead Altcoin Decline

The altcoin markets find themselves engulfed in a sea of red. The normally-steady Ripple price fell by 9% to $0.242 over the course of the week, while Ethereum Classic dropped 11% to $17.  The NEM price has declined more than 9% in the past 24 hours alone; it currently sits at $0.154. The EOS price has cooled off since its record-setting ICO; on Friday it declined 16% to $2.77.

litecoin price
Chart from CoinMarketCap

But the downturn hit no major cryptocurrencies as hard as IOTA, Stratis, and BitShares. Eighth-ranked IOTA fell 14% for the day and 27% for the week; the decline pushed the IOTA price to $0.322 and market cap to $895 million.

Stratis also posted a 24-hour decline of 14% to $5.14 and a $506 million market cap. Nevertheless, Stratis still clings to a top-10 ranking, because the BitShares price plummeted this week, too. It fell 26% to $0.189, reducing its market cap to $491 million.

Litecoin and Dash were the only leading coins to post positive weekly returns, although they have both declined significantly since reaching all-time highs earlier in the week. The litecoin price currently trades around $48, while the Dash price rests just under the $200 mark at $199.

Flippening Watch

Ethereum’s terrible week enabled bitcoin to pull further ahead in market cap dominance. Last Friday, bitcoin (40.5%) held a 12.6% lead over ethereum (27.9%). Bitcoin steadily increased that distance throughout the week.

Flippening
Chart from CoinMarketCap

At present, bitcoin boasts a 43.1% market cap share, while ethereum lags behind by 18.4% with a 24.5% share. This is the widest gap between bitcoin and ethereum since June 27, when bitcoin very briefly advanced to a 20% lead.