Cryptos Plunge; Bitcoin Drops Below $83k

Cryptocurrency market turned into a sea of red and Bitcoin dropped below $83 thousand amidst a massive liquidation cascade. The past 24 hours witnessed long positions being forcibly flushed out amidst a jump in bond yields, the dollar's rebound and an uptick in Fed rate hike expectations. Crypto markets also digested reports of BitMine Immersion Technologies announcing a cap on Ethereum purchases.

The aggregate liquidations during the 24-hour period stood at $696 million. Liquidation of long positions amounted to $644 million, while the liquidation of short positions amounted to $52 million only.

Lingering anxiety ahead of the release of minutes of the recent FOMC weighed on crypto market sentiment. Crypto markets also reacted to the hardening in bond yields across regions and tenors amidst renewed fears about burgeoning debt and worrying fiscal position. Ten-year U.S. treasuries are currently trading at 5.328 percent, jumping 1.14 percent from the previous close. Yields on long-dated 30-year U.S. treasuries also surged 1.3 percent to 5.715 percent. Ten-year bond yields have increased around 1 percent in the U.S., Canada, France, U.K., Spain, Italy as well as Japan.

The U.S. Dollar too jumped, causing the Dollar Index to rise more than half a percent overnight. The six-currency Dollar Index which measures the U.S. dollar's strength against a basket of 6 currencies is currently trading at 102.41, jumping 0.57 percent from 101.83 at the previous close. The dollar's rebound has dampened the dollar-denominated prices of cryptocurrencies.