Altcoins Take a Hit As Bitcoin Corrects From Latest All-Time High

Has the bubble popped? Is it time to buy the dip? Is it time to find a real job? All questions thrown up by today’s brief market crash, which sunk the price of all major altcoins by as much as 12%. 

And while the market deals with the crash, a correction from Bitcoin’s all-time high today, all shall remain unanswered. 

The price of Ethereum, which yesterday hit highs of $1,282, has fallen by 6% to its current price of $1,198.

Here’s how that played out for Ethereum, the largest altcoin. First, Ethereum fell from $1,255 to $1,084 in the early hours of this morning before recovering to daily highs of $1,273 by noon. 

Then, at 3pm, the price fell from $1,264 to $1,204, before recovering slightly to $1,234. Ethereum’s price fell sharply again at 6pm, from $1,219 to $1,189.

Ethereum is the largest altcoin—cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Bitcoin tugged it along this bull run; Ethereum’s price has more than doubled since December. 

ETH had a strong 2020. Its blockchain supported the decentralized finance boom, which comprised decentralized lending protocols and exchanges, and the first stage of the launch of Ethereum 2.0 in December went some way to secure the future of the network. 

Other altcoins also fell. 

Litecoin fell 4% to $179, XRP fell 12% to $0.31, Cardano (ADA) fell 8% to $0.29 and Polkadot (DOT) fell 9% to $9.11. 

More losses: Bitcoin Cash fell 7.12% to $441, Stellar (XLM) fell 12.29% to $0.29 and Chainlink fell 11% to $15. 

Only Bitcoin, the largest coin by market capitalization and the driver of this bull run, remains in the green for the day, according to CoinMarketCap, which records the coin as increasing by 3% in the past 24 hours. 

But even the price of Bitcoin, currently $40,318, is stinking after falling from all-time highs of $41,941 observed earlier this afternoon. 

Previous Bitcoin price dips this week have been quickly devoured by hungry investors. But will their appetites be quite as strong for altcoins?