Crash of the crypto market cap: dropping below $1 trillion

Today, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies fell below $1 trillion. 

Market cap crash: down threefold

To be fair, it seems to hover just below or just above this threshold, but it is still a level not seen since January 2021. 

Compared to the absolute peak in November 2021, this is three times lower. 

It is worth noting that at the very end of January 2021, after an initial boom in Bitcoin’s price first from $20,000 to $40,000 and then down to $30,000, the last really big altcoin bull run began. 

In other words, today all the gains made in 2021 by the altcoins are burnt, with the price of Bitcoin also falling below last year’s lows. 

Therefore, it is possible to say that in the first five full months of 2022, all but a few exceptions of the 2021 crypto market gains have been wiped out.

Bitcoin’s price has even returned to December 2020 levels, with a market capitalization similar to what it had on 26 December of that year. 

As for ETH (Ethereum), it is in line with that of 24 January 2021, i.e. just before the start of the last big altcoin bull run. 

Today’s crash

If we exclude 2021 and in the case of Bitcoin also December 2020, never before had similar levels been reached as the current ones. So today’s collapse does not bring the crypto market back to the levels of the previous bear market, but merely erases the gains of the bull run. 

During the peak of the previous cycle, i.e. in January 2018, the maximum level reached by the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies was around $850 billion. However, it is also worth noting that stablecoins currently have more than $150 billion in capitalization, whereas at the time they only capitalized just over $2 billion. 

Therefore, taking stablecoins out of the count, the picture becomes even gloomier. 

For example, altcoins alone, without Bitcoin and stablecoins, now capitalize at around $515 billion, and in January 2018 for a very brief moment exceeded $500 billion. Therefore, the current overall level of the value of all cryptocurrencies, excluding Bitcoin and stablecoins, has actually returned close to the levels of last cycle’s peak. 

As far as Bitcoin is concerned, the situation is different, because at the peak of the last cycle, in December 2017, it only capitalized just over $300 billion, compared to over $450 billion today.