Crypto market cap falls by $230B as fear index hits April lows
The crypto market's Fear and Greed Index flipped sharply to “Fear” this week, falling from levels seen last April, as market sales wiped out more than $230 billion in one day.
On Friday, CoinMarketCap's Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which tracks volatility, market momentum, social media trends and dominance metrics, dropped to 28, which is in the “fear” category and is approaching “high fear.”
According to CoinMarketCap data, the total crypto market capitalization fell to $3.54 trillion on Friday, down 6% from $3.78 trillion the previous day. That wiped more than $230 billion off the sector's value, one of the biggest single-day declines in months.
Traditional assets' index of fear and greed fell to 22, reflecting heightened fears in the market, as U.S. stocks closed on Thursday from turmoil in the credit market, regional banks' exposure to bad loans and U.S.-China trade tensions spread jitters on Wall Street.
Top crypto assets continue to bleed.
Major crypto assets have extended their decline over the past 24 hours as a broader market correction continues, the data shows.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 6% to about $105,000, while Ether (ETH) fell 8% to about $3,700. Among large-cap altcoins, BNB ( BNB ) posted losses of nearly 12%, followed by Chainlink ( LINK ) with an 11% drop and Cardano ( ADA ), which fell 9%.
Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) fell more than 7%, extending a week-long decline that erased double-digit gains accumulated earlier this month.
On average, the largest volatile crypto assets have declined by 8%–9% over the past 24 hours.
While last week's market crash resulted in nearly $20 billion in outflows, this week's decline has slowed activity considerably.
On Friday, data from CoinGlass showed that roughly $556 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated across all exchanges, a fraction of last week's figure.
Of this amount, 451 million dollars were obtained from long positions and 105 million dollars were obtained from short-term liquidity.
Related: Gold market cap hits $30T, Bitcoin and tech giants slump.
NFTs, Memecoins and ETFs respond to the market sell-off
In addition to major cryptocurrencies, other assets such as memecoins, intangible tokens (NFTs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been affected by the recent crash.
Memecoins, which has shown little signs of recovery this week, is down 33% in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Top memecoin assets have seen a 9-11 percent drop in the past 24 hours, with trading volumes relatively high, around $10 billion.
After recovering from a $1.2 billion loss last week, the NFT sector erased its gains and fell below $5 billion, a level seen last July. CoinGecko data shows that most blue-chip stocks have dropped by double-digit percentages in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, spot bitcoin and ether ETFs reacted to the risk. On Thursday, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of more than $536 million, while spot ether ETFs saw daily net inflows of more than $56 million.
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