There is ‘no clear trigger’ for the bloodbath as top altcoins fall by double digits.
Crypto markets plunged into a sea of red on Monday as some altcoins bled more than 10%, an industry analyst told Cointelegraph that there was no “clear trigger” to explain why.
The crypto market cap has dropped to $2.46 trillion, down 3.5% in the last 24 hours. Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Avalanche (AVAX) became the heaviest altcoins among the market's top 20 on June 17, falling 12.7% and 10.6% on the day, according to CoinGecko data.
Uniswap (UNI) and Dogecoin (DOGE) also saw double-digit drops, while Solana (SOL) fell 9.4 percent. Ripple's XRP (XRP) was the only coin that was unstable in the red, although it only saw a small increase of 0.1%.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have fallen 1.3% and 4.4% in the last 24 hours.
Henrik Andersson, chief investment officer at asset manager Apollo Crypto, said he could not pinpoint the main cause of the market's decline, but he believes a drop in demand in the space for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be a recent contributor.
“[There’s] From what I can see there is no clear incentive, though [it] It appears negative BTC ETF flows have led to weakness in alts, reducing interest in long traders in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, Anderson told Cointelegraph.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen gains on five of the past six trading days, according to data from Farside Investors.
Digital asset firm 10xResearch also linked the recent altcoin crash to the fall in Bitcoin ETF liquidity last week, but thinks the connection is the other way around.
“Bitcoin's failure to rally despite weak inflation data was surprising, but Ethereum and altcoin crashes may have been predictable,” 10xResearch added.
Despite the decline in the price of BTC, the number of Bitcoin miners increased by double digits.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining stocks have been performing strongly in recent weeks and are now making up some lost ground from April's halving event, according to an industry analyst.
“Before the halving, mining stocks underperformed,” Blockware Solutions principal analyst Mitchell Askew told Cointelegraph.
Related: Altcoins ‘relatively big' risk as days of big returns are over, say analysts
But that fear has since been allayed, and mining stocks are returning to equilibrium after underperforming against Bitcoin and proxies like MicroStrategy.
Askew Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners Exchange-Traded Fund WGMI is now up 54% since the event, indicating that market confidence has returned to the mining sector.
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