Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets have been liquidated in the last 24 hours as powerful law enforcement agency sets its sights on Ethereum (ETH).
New data from Coinglass shows 137,969 traders were just liquidated to the tune of $429 million with the majority of traders losing bets on BTC and ETH, which saw $141 million and $110 million in liquidations respectively.
Other prominent crypto assets affected include smart contract platform Solana (SOL), Bitcoin alternative Litecoin (LTC), meme asset Dogecoin (DOGE), layer-2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC), oracle provider Chainlink (LINK) and XRP.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are trading for $19,935 and $1,406 at time of writing, both over 6% declines during the last 24 hours.
The broad market plunge comes as the Biden Administration and New York’s Attorney General launch an assault on crypto assets and their owners.
ETH has been labeled as a security by New York Attorney General Letitia James in a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court of New York on Thursday, and the Biden administration is targeting Bitcoin mining in a new tax proposal, following the regulatory pressure that collapsed crypto-friendly bank Silvergate.
The macroeconomy is not helping the crypto markets either.
Equities are reeling from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which was officially shut down by regulators today after reporting a $1.8 billion loss from selling mostly US government bonds.
Mainstream economists believe banks can buy government bonds as a safe way to diversify their assets, but the Fed’s sharp interest rate hikes have sent their prices in a downward spiral.
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