NEW YORK: The easiest way to understand crypto used to be to look at bitcoin.
When the world’s largest cryptocurrency rose, money flooded into startups, venture funds, exchanges and thousands of speculative tokens. When it crashed, businesses disappeared, funding dried up and activity slowed across the industry.
Bitcoin wasn’t merely the biggest digital asset. It was the centre of gravity for the entire crypto economy. Now, some of the industry’s fastest-growing businesses are moving according to a different logic.
The coin is down sharply. Last Friday, it fell below US$60,000, extending a decline that has erased around half its value from last year’s peak.
The sell-off has been fuelled by money leaving exchange-traded funds, the artificial intelligence or AI boom competing for retail attention and growing questions about whether the large corporate buyers that helped drive the previous rally can continue accumulating.
Much of the altcoin market is suffering an even deeper downturn that predates bitcoin’s latest slide.
The market value of altcoins, tokens other than bitcoin, peaked at US$431bil in November of 2021, and is currently languishing around US$170bil, according to TradingView.
Entire ecosystems that once promised to reshape finance are shrinking, consolidating or quietly disappearing. — Bloomberg
