The market-wide correction that saw BTC plummet to $51,500 has harmed the alternative coins even worse. Ethereum dropped well below $1,600, while double-digit price declines are evident for numerous large-cap alts, including Polkadot and Uniswap.

Alts in a Sea of Red; ETH Below $1,600

After a few days of sideways trading, the altcoin market looked healthy yesterday with minor gains. Ethereum led the charge with an increase above $1,700. Moreover, the second-largest cryptocurrency went to a daily high of $1,740.

However, the situation has changed entirely in the past 24 hours. A sudden price drop evaporated $200 of ETH’s value, and the asset went to an intraday low of $1,550 a few hours ago. Despite recovering some ground since then, ETH is still below $1,600 and is over 6% down.

Red dominates the rest of the altcoin market too. Binance (-5%) and Cardano (-2.5%) have decreased to $245 and $1.1, respectively.

Polkadot has slumped by 13% to below $31, Ripple (-10%) is beneath $0.5, UNI (-11.5%) is down to $27, Litecoin (-9%) trades at $175, and THETA (-18%) is now just shy of $12. Nevertheless, THETA is 60% up in the past seven days, and its ascend has made the coin the 9th largest by market cap.

Further losses are evident for Theta Fuel (-24%), IOTA (-15%), Ontology (-13%), Fantom (-12%), OMG Network (-12%), Flow (-12%), Ren (-12%), SushiSwap (-12%), 0x (-11%), and more.

Ultimately, the cumulative market capitalization saw $150 billion wiped off in a day to a low of $1.620 trillion.

BTC Lost Over $6K

The situation for the primary cryptocurrency seemed to be going its way yesterday following news from Elon Musk’s Tesla that the giant will enable purchases with BTC and retain the coins. Almost instantaneously, the cryptocurrency jumped by a few thousand dollars and even topped $57,000.

The tables turned rather vigorously for bitcoin as it plummeted by more than $6,000 since then to an intraday low of $51,500 registered a few hours ago. Although BTC has bounced off and spiked to roughly $53,000, it’s still over 4% down on a 24-hour scale.

What’s perhaps even more damaging is the fact that bitcoin’s market capitalization dropped below the coveted $1 trillion and still sits beneath it.

According to Bybt data, the enhanced volatility has caused over $2 billion in liquidations across the entire market since yesterday. In the past 12 hours alone – approximately at the time when the market started dumping in value – the liquidations are more than $1.6 billion.

Following another slump towards $53,500, bitcoin has reclaimed some ground and has overcome $56,000. Most altcoins have also bounced off since the latest drops, with BNB taking back the third position in terms of market cap and THETA solidifying its top 10 position with another double-digit surge.

Bitcoin Adds 3% Following Tesla News?

The past several days didn’t go well for the primary cryptocurrency. After touching but getting rejected at the coveted $60,000 price line on Saturday, bitcoin lost roughly $7,000 to just beneath $53,000, as reported yesterday.

In the past 24 hours, the situation seemed somewhat more positive as BTC jumped to nearly $56,000. However, the bears regained control again and drove BTC back down to an intraday low of $53,500.

Approximately at that time, Tesla’s Elon Musk said that his electric vehicle giant will officially start accepting bitcoin as a means of payment. Perhaps even more importantly, he noted that all BTC the company receives will be “retained as bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”

Keeping in mind the history between Musk’s endorsements and BTC’s price, the asset jumped by over $2,000 in a matter of hours and currently sits north of $56,000.

Alts Attempt Recovery; BNB Back in Top 3

Most of the altcoin market suffered in the past few days as well. Ethereum dropped from above $1,800 to $1,650, but the second-largest cryptocurrency has regained some ground as well since then. Following a minor increase, ETH is back above $1,700.

Binance Coin dropped beneath $250 yesterday and lost its position as the third-largest digital asset to Tether (USDT). Similar to ETH, though, a slight jump has helped BNB in reclaiming the top three spot with a price tag of $260.

Cardano (3%), Polkadot (1.4%), and Litecoin (5.5%) are in the green too. In contrast, XRP (-2%) and UNI (-7%) have lost some value. UNI’s price slump is somewhat unexpected as the decentralized exchange behind the governance token announced the long-anticipated V3 upgrade news earlier.

THETA is again the most impressive large-cap gainer with a 26% surge. As such, the asset has solidified its position within the top ten, while Chainlink (1.5%) is out.

Further gains come from Ankr (38%), Harmony (37%), MVL (32%), Curve DAO Token (30%), Theta Fuel (27%), Ontology (25%), Enjin Coin (21%), ICON (18%), PancakeSwap (15%), and Flow (13%).

Ultimately, the crypto market cap has added $60 billion and is well above $1.7 trillion.