Bitcoin and crypto market stabilises after bloody selloff

Over the past three days, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed a dramatic decline, with almost $40 billion wiped off the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. It's the second such crash in less than a month.

The most recent market crash saw the vast majority of cryptocurrencies suffer significant losses—with Bitcoin (BTC) alone losing more than $20 billion from its market capitalization after a series of brutal sell-offs. Altcoins like Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and XRP were also hit hard, falling below crucial support levels that had not been breached since early February.

However, although much of the market is still in the red today, it appears that the worst of the bearish price action is behind us. As it stands, most cryptocurrencies are down between 1-3% in the last day, while a handful have already begun recovering. The price of Bitcoin is up nearly 2% in the last 24 hours, reaching $8,047, while Ethereum's price is holding around $203.

Unlike most bear markets, the most recent sell-off has an obvious cause. According to Ergo—a Twitter account that tracks that movements of illicit funds from the 2019 PlusToken scam—more than 13,000 stolen BTC worth over $100 million was dumped into mixers just hours before the market began to crash.

This sudden increased selling pressure forced the market into a downtrend, deleting the gains most cryptocurrencies accrued earlier in March.

Now that this selling pressure has subsided, most cryptocurrencies are showing signs of recovery.