Bitcoin breaks below $20K amid crypto bloodbath: Here’s what happened

Bitcoin price fell below $20,000 after its biggest dump since November 2022.
The top crypto asset by market cap dumped amid broader selloff for cryptocurrencies, largely fueled by negative news.
Among other news, the New York Attorney General has sued KuCoin over offering of unregistered securities, with Ethereum named as one of the securities.

Bitcoin price has dropped nearly 10% in the past 24 hours amid negative cryptocurrency news that could yet catalyse further losses.

As the Bitcoin price chart below shows, the value of the leading cryptocurrency by market fell to lows of $19,569 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp.

Bitcoin price fell below $20,000 to hit $19,569 on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

This after a selloff that began late Thursday extended into Friday morning, with the dump pushing BTC below the psychological support zone of $20,000 for the first time since early January. Bitcoin has also seen its biggest price dump since November 2022 during the FTX dump.

Why Bitcoin and crypto crashed today

As CoinJournal reported early Friday, today’s selling pressure for cryptocurrencies comes after the New York Attorney General sued the crypto exchange Kucoin alleging it sold unregistered securities. The negative news was compounded by the fact that the lawsuit identified Ethereum as one of the securities.

The market’s reaction saw Ethereum price plunge to lows of $1,375 and was down 9.8% at the time of writing.

Overall selloff pressure also follows news that crypto bank Silvergate was winding down. The company’s shares plummeted nearly 50% in the aftermath, with fears of even more damage amid a Silicon Valley “bank run.”

Another headline news likely to have fueled fresh downside for crypto was reports that the US was targeting a new tax on Bitcoin mining. Huobi Token’s flash crash and a security breach on Hedera also added to the broader market bloodbath.

Crypto analyst Miles Deutscher highlighted this confluence of negative triggers, noting that stocks and cryptocurrencies have shed over $2 trillion in market cap over the past 24 hours.

In the last 24 hours:

• Stocks + crypto shed $2T in value
• New York Attorney labels $ETH a security
• KuCoin hit with lawsuit
• Silicon Valley bank crash
• Huobi flash crash
• Biden proposes tax on $BTC mining
• Voyager liquidating assets

Just another day in crypto..

— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) March 10, 2023