The total capitalization of digital currencies falls below the psychological threshold of trillion dollars and analysts split between bullish and bearish13 Jun 2022Patrizia Licata journalist The sell-off that is hitting the stock and bond markets is also overwhelming Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, in particular, lost 13% slipping below $24,000, the lowest level since December 2020. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, fell more than 17%. The market cap of cryptocurrencies has plummeted to $1 trillion from $3 trillion in November, with digital currencies under pressure for weeks. In these hours to weigh is the decision of the cryptocurrency lending company Celsius Network to suspend withdrawals and transfers. Binance also temporarily suspended withdrawals following a "blocked transaction that is creating delays." In recent weeks, digital currencies, as well as traditional markets, have been involved in investors' flight from riskier assets, but have shown even higher volatility. Tom Lee, co-founder of research firm Fundstrat, said 2022 will likely be a flat year for Bitcoin, perhaps only slightly positive. But other analysts oscillate strongly between bullish and bearish attitudes. The world's number one cryptocurrency could slip even below $20,000. Index of Topics• Analysts divided between bullish and bearish• Capitalization below $1 trillion• Bitcoin always on a roller coasterAses divided between bullish and bearishThis analysts predict a slump in the coming months that will send Bitcoin to $20,000 or even below, Lee continues to believe in the strength of the asset, but has abandoned the bullish stance that distinguishes it: Last November, shortly after reaching its current all-time high of $69,000, he said the asset would hit $200,000 in 2022. Lee, however, considers the impacts of the implosion of the Terra platform or the redundancies in large crypto companies, including Coinbase, to be insignificant; the expert claims that Bitcoin "is reacting much better than could be expected"," as he stated on CNBC. Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, remains bullish over the long term. During a recent meeting with the media, he rejected the idea of a permanent price drop. On CNBC he said: "The deniers and skeptics are wrong — and it's pretty obvious that at this point they are both wrong — about the fact that Bitcoin will go to zero. And if it doesn't go to zero, it means it's going to go to a million." Despite Saylor's great confidence, many others believe that we will not see a substantial recovery of Bitcoin until the next halving, scheduled for 2024.Capitalization under 1 trillion dollarsJustin Bennett, one of the leading analysts of the crypto market, wrote on Twitter that the ecosystem could undergo a major downsizing, in which Bitcoin and altcoins will lose a significant portion of their value. With the current declines, more than 5% of the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has been burned, amounting to about 950 billion dollars. We are now below the psychological threshold worth $1 trillion and, according to Bennet, a further 15% loss is likely for Bitcoin at $23,500 before a possible improvement. Altcoins could lose 22.5% to 30% of their value. Bitcoin always on a roller coasterCoin reached in November 2021 the record price of almost 69,000 dollars; since then the fluctuations have been intense and the drops in value heavy, also due to a closer scrutiny of the regulators of the financial market. Today the factors that depress the price are, in addition to the increase in interest rates and the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUsd and the connected token Luna. Cryptocurrency lending company Celsius Network has said it will suspend withdrawals and transfers between accounts due to "extreme market conditions." Highly risky and liquid assets, such as cryptocurrencies, are usually the first to be sold during market sell-offs," ChainUp analysts commented.
Bitcoin returns to lows: below $24,000 and could collapse to $20,000