Crypto Market Daily Highlights – ETH Leads Top Ten Fed Fueled Sell-Off

Key Insights:

• It was a bearish Friday session for the crypto top ten, with Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) leading the slide.
• Fed Chair Powell’s heavily anticipated Jackson Hole speech sent the equity and the crypto markets into a tailspin.
• The total crypto market cap tumbled by $67.5 billion to $952.2 billion, with the crypto market now on target for a fourth monthly loss from five.

It was a bearish Friday session for the crypto top ten. Bitcoin (BTC) has avoided sub-$20,000 while falling short of $22,000 for a seventh consecutive session. ETH visited sub-$1,500, with SOL sliding to $31.

Fed Chair Powell delivered a warning to the markets of the Fed’s commitment to bring inflation to target. Powell talked of the likely fallout from the Fed’s goal, including the impact on labor market conditions. The Fed Chair also removed any hope of a policy reversal by highlighting the need for a period of sustained below-trend growth alongside a weaker labor market to tame inflation.

Investor reaction to Powell’s speech was evident, with the NASDAQ 100 sliding by 3.94% and crypto markets coughing up $78 billion from the start of the Powell speech to the end of the UTC session.

Economic indicators provided brief support. However, the positive market reaction to softer inflation numbers was short-lived. The Core PCE Price Index increased by 4.6% year-over-year in July, down from 4.8% in June. Personal spending disappointed, with a modest 0.1% increase after having risen by 1.0% in June.

The Total Crypto Market Cap Tumbles to sub-$950 billion

On Friday, the total crypto market cap rose to a pre-Powell speech day high of $1,032 billion before tumbling to a low of $942 billion.

A modest final hour recovery left the crypto market at $952.2 billion, down $67.5 billion for the session.

The sell-off leaves the total crypto market cap down $107 billion for August.

The Crypto Market Movers and Shakers from the Top Ten and Beyond

It was a bearish Friday session for the crypto top ten.

ETH and SOL led the way down, sliding by 11.05% and 10.11%, respectively.

ADA (-7.10%), BNB (-7.17%), BTC (-6.03%), and DOGE (-7.94%) also struggled, while XRP fell by a more modest 3.25%.

From the CoinMarketCap top 100, it is a mixed session.

Huobi Token (HT) and Theta Fuel (TFUEL) bucked the broader market trend, with gains of 4.77% and 3.66%, respectively.

However, Flow (FLOW) was amongst the worst performers, sliding by 13.34%, with Uniswap (UNI) down 12.43%.

Crypto Liquidations Surged in Response to Fed Chair Powell’s Policy Speech

Over 24 hours, total liquidations jumped as investors reacted to Fed Chair Powell’s speech from Jackson Hole.

At the time of writing, 24-hour liquidations stood at $346.13 million, up from $89.10 million on Friday morning.

Liquidated traders also rose over the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, liquidated traders stood at 113,370 versus 32,156 on Friday morning. Liquidations over 12 hours, 4 hours, and one hour were also down up, with investors unable to take any positives from Powell’s speech.

According to Coinglass, 12-hour liquidations stood at $271.70 million, up from $37.51 million on Friday morning. 4-hour liquidations jumped from $5.87 million to $82.24 million, with one-hour liquidations up from $0.721 million to $68.92 million. The chart below shows market conditions throughout the session.