On Sunday night, the celsius network, one of the largest crypto lending platforms, abruptly announced a “pause” on withdrawals and transfers, citing “extreme market conditions.” celsius announced its suspension as Asian markets opened on Monday morning and the price of its cel token, which was worth almost $7 a year ago, lost a third of its remaining value, falling to just 21 cents.
In the hours following the pause, the prices of other cryptocurrencies also plummeted. coinmarketcap’s global cryptocurrency tracker showed the total market capitalization of crypto assets (including stablecoins and tokens) below $1 trillion as of 8:53 a.m. ET, falling from its peak of $ 3 billion last November.
Reading: Bitcoin prices plunge dramatically overnight
The price of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 12 percent in the last 24 hours, shedding about $2,000 from its price since the Celsius news came out, dropping to $23,510.15 as of 9:33AM ET, according to Coinbase. The last time the price of Bitcoin was that low was in December 2020, while it peaked on November 9th, 2021, at $69,000. Today’s drop is continuing a slide that CoinDesk noted has gone on for 12 straight weeks, from $49,000 in March.
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The same goes for ethereum, which is down 14 percent in the last day and is down from $1,355 before the celsius announcement to around $1,238 as of 9:33 a.m. ET. on November 9 last year, it also peaked at $4,891.
One key area to watch is bitcoin mining, where cointelegraph reports, based on data from bitdeer and others, that older mining rigs are at risk of being shut down at current prices and mining difficulty. that’s the point where it would no longer be profitable to operate, with profits offset by the cost of electricity needed to power the rigs.
State-of-the-art hardware can continue to make a profit even if prices continue to fall, according to the report, but a unit like antminer’s s17+ (73t) rig could become unprofitable if the price falls below 22,000 usd this also aligns with research showing that if the price remains below $25,200, it could significantly reduce the global energy use of the bitcoin network, to less than 120 twh annually.
Amidst this drop in cryptocurrency prices, major trading exchange binance has also halted bitcoin withdrawals. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced the freeze at 8 a.m. ET. He originally said the outage would be resolved in about 30 minutes, but then went on to say, “This will probably take a little longer to fix than my initial estimate.”
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around 11:30 a.m. ET, binance announced that withdrawals from the bitcoin network have resumed. According to the support page, “we are still working to process pending withdrawals from the bitcoin (btc) network, and this is estimated to be completed within the next two hours. Please note that pending withdrawals from the bitcoin (btc) network will be declined. in this case, the corresponding users will have to resubmit their withdrawal requests.”
The share price of cryptocurrency trading platform coinbase, which has already announced a hiring freeze and terminated accepted job offers, fell 20% before the markets opened on Monday morning, according to cnbc. its share prices are down 76 percent over the past year.
update Jun 13, 12:33 PM m. et: updated status of binance bitcoin withdrawals.
update Jun 13, 1:57 PM m. et: aggregate information and link on the potential environmental impact of lower bitcoin prices.
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