The crypto market is once again reeling as about $100 billion in market value disappeared in a matter of hours late Sunday.
The cause was not a technical blockchain issue, but global political and geopolitical uncertainties that are once again haunting investor sentiment.
The concerns arose after the Democratic US Senate threatened to block the government funding bill, thus increasing the risk of a partial US government shutdown.
As markets hate uncertainty, risky assets such as crypto are the first victims.
TradingView data shows that the total crypto market capitalization fell from $2.97 trillion to $2.87 trillion in just six hours.
Bitcoin fell 3.4%, while Ether fell even more significantly by 5.3%, reflecting strong selling pressure on altcoins.
The fall was also exacerbated by massive liquidations.
Over $360 million in leveraged positions were wiped out in 24 hours, with the majority of them involving long positions, a sign that many traders were misreading the market direction.
Geopolitical tensions added to the anxiety.
New tariff threats by US President Donald Trump, as well as the movement of US military assets in the Middle East, prompted investors to seek refuge in safe-haven assets such as gold, which has now clearly outperformed Bitcoin.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index remains in the ‘Extreme Fear’ zone with a reading of 20/100, indicating that the market is still gripped by deep fear.
