Bitcoin Slides to $66K, Ether Dives 5% in Market-Wide Selloff

Cryptocurrencies
bled
lower
on
Wednesday
alongside
a
slide
in
traditional
markets
across
the
board.

ETH
not
only
made
new
lows
against
BTC
–
the
ETH/BTC
ratio
went
below
0.038
for
the
first
time
since
April
2021
–
but
also
against
SOL.
The
SOL/ETH
trading
pair
notched
a
decisive
new
all-time
high
by
rising
6.3%
to
0.068
amid

renewed
debate
in
the
crypto
community
about
the
wisdom
behind
Ethereum’s
roadmap.

“Much
of
the
poor
sentiment
and
questions
around
Ethereum’s
roadmap
is
due
to
recent
underperformance
versus
BTC
and
SOL,”
Brian
Rudick,
director
of
research
at
crypto
trading
firm
GSR,

posted
on
X.

“However,
this
is
a
poor
comparison
as
BTC
and
SOL
were
subject
to
two
large
idiosyncratic
events,”
Rudick
wrote,
namely,
the
immense
success
of
the
spot
bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds,
and
the
impact
of
the
FTX
collapse
–
and
Solana’s
resurgence
from
the
ashes
–
on
investor
perception.

“Measuring
from
crypto’s
ATH
market
cap
in
Nov
2021
to
remove
[the
FTX
collapse]
shows
ETH
and
SOL
have
had
[about]
the
same
performance,”
Rudick
added.

The
looming
U.S.
election,
only
two
weeks
away,
didn’t
appear
to
offer
any
assistance
either.
Even
with
crypto-friendly
Donald
Trump
in
the
lead
(based
on
betting
markets),
and
Vice
President
Kamala
Harris
appearing
less
adversarial
towards
crypto
than
the
current
administration,
markets
will
have
difficulty
“breaking
upwards
before
election
day,”
Joe
Edwards,
head
of
research
at
digital
assets
broker
Enigma
Securities,
wrote
in
a
research
report.

The
bleeding
out
Wednesday
wasn’t
contained
to
crypto.
The
S&P
500,
Nasdaq,
and
Dow
Jones
were
each
lower
by
more
than
1%
shortly
before
the
end
of
the
session
as
price
consolidated
following
strong
runs
higher
for
all
over
the
past
couple
of
months.

The
bond
market
was
also
lower,
with
the
10-year
Treasury
yield
rising
to
a
three-month
high
of
4.25%.
Making
record
highs
on
seemingly
a
daily
basis
of
late,
gold
also
pulled
back,
slipping
1.1%
to
$2,730
per
ounce.
The
price
of
oil
fell
1.35%
to
$70.77
per
barrel.

“Don’t
worry
folks
Tesla
will
save
the
market
when
they
report
earnings,”
Ram
Ahluwalia,
CEO
of
crypto
investment
advisor
Lumida
Wealth,

posted
on
X.
“Overall,
I’d
say
we
are
closer
to
the
end
of
this
move
of
pricing
in
higher
for
longer…
November
is
looking
very
good
in
my
view.”

Tesla
is
due
to
report
its
quarterly
results
after
this
afternoon’s
market
close.

Crypto
equities
felt
the
brunt
of
the
pullback.
Bitcoin
miners
fared
the
worst,
with
MARA
Holdings
(MARA)
and
CleanSpark
(CLSK)
each
lower
by
about
5%.
Coinbase
(COIN)
slumped
6%
and
MicroStrategy
(MSTR)
slipped
2.5%.