Cryptocurrencies looked set for consecutive red days, as surging inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to shake investor confidence and steer them away from riskier assets toward safe havens.
In the US, all eyes turned to the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday decision on interest rates, which analysts expect to be increased by 0.5 percentage points and therefore make borrowing for consumers harder by further squeezing budgets.
Bitcoin fell 0.6% to US$38,337 but was slightly outpaced in its decline by its closest rival by market value, Ethereum, which gave up 1.2% to US$2,812.
The largest digital coin was changing hands at a two-month low, while it has been weeks since the second-largest crypto (Ethereum) was regularly trading above US$3,000.
Both were trading more than 40% below their all-time highs seen in the latter parts of last year.
The sourness echoed around much of the crypto world, with 79 of the top 100 coins trading in negative territory on Wednesday morning.
Some of the biggest fallers amongst the top 20 were Solana, Avalanche and Polygon, which eased 2.1%, 2.0% and 1.7% respectively.
Outside of the well-recognised coins were UNUS SED LEO, Cosmos and Algorand, which declined 3.5%, 3.6% and 8.1% respectively.
Although it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the crypto market. NEAR Protocol, Cronos and Tron were the most notable risers, having advanced 2.8%, 2.0% and 6.4% respectively.
