Tanya Abrosimova
Independent Analyst
- Small coins are nursing bigger losses than Bitcoin.
- The altcoins are tightly correlated with Bitcoin.
The global regulatory push against Facebook's Libra triggered a sharp sell-off on the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin (BTC) has lost over 30% of its value and smashed several critical support levels.
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However, the most popular digital asset is not the only casualty of the recent criticism towards Libra as smaller cryptocurrencies, also known as altcoins have experienced an even worse decline.
Thus, Ethereum has lost nearly 50% of its value, while XRP and Litecoin dropped by 40% from their recent highs.
It is worth noting that altcoins are tightly correlated to Bitcoin. They tend to follow the lead of the first digital currency. However, during the bear's market, the smaller coins tend to nurse more substantial loses that Bitcoin, as altcoins are regarded as more risky assets.
"When things are going up bitcoin tends to outperform and when crypto goes down the altcoins tend to take larger losses," Mati Greenspan, a senior analyst at eToro commented.
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At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at $9,700. The coin has gained about 3% since this time on Wednesday, though it is still down 17% on a week-on-week basis. NEO, DASH and Bitcoin SV appears to be the biggest losers with 28% of losses on a weekly basis.
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