Several major cryptocurrencies plunged on Friday amid worsening inflation numbers and an EU vote on crypto legislation which the industry viewed unfavourably.
For the day, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market valuation, has fallen more than 2% to under $45K. Ether, the second-largest crypto by market capitalization, changed hands at about $3,200 during the same period.
The largest single liquidation order came from Bitmex – XBTUSD for the value of $4.95 million. 115,015 traders have been liquidated in the past 24 hours and the total liquidation amount is $387.83 million.
Leveraged positions especially at the Crypto derivatives market are forced to be liquidated when the margin requirement is not met by the trader.
Several prominent altcoins have also suffered, indicating investors’ reduced appetite for risk. DOGE and SHIB were recently down more than 5% respectively.
Legislators in the European Union passed controversial measures to outlaw anonymous crypto transactions today, a move the cryptocurrency industry criticized as stifling innovation and invading privacy.
Crypto sector payments will be subject to the same anti-money laundering requirements as conventional payments over EUR 1,000 ($1,114). In addition, they don’t allow crypto payments, so even small crypto transactions would require identification, including those with non-hosted or self-hosted wallets.
Unregulated crypto exchanges may be cut off from conventional financial systems through further measures under discussion.
It was announced in December that national governments wanted to scrap the EUR 1,000 cap on crypto, arguing that digital payments could easily circumvent it, and to include private wallets that aren’t run by regulated crypto asset firms.
