Crypto Today: Bleeding in crypto space continues, market cap drops below $500 billion

• Bitcoin falls below critical $10K on Wednesday.
• Ethereum and Ripple are both down nearly 20% for the second straight day.
• Total market cap decreases to multi-week lows.

The cryptocurrency sell-off that was triggered on worries of South Korea banning trading activity continued on Wednesday with the top ten largest coins losing around 20% for the second straight day. The BTC/USD pair dropped below the $10K mark for the first time since late November and was last seen trading at $10,178.70, losing nearly 12% on the day. The ETH/USD pair extended losses below the $1K handle while the XRP/USD plummeted to $1, both dropping nearly 20% on Wednesday.

The sharp decrease seen in the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies suggest that investors are looking to leave the market and the negative sentiment surrounding the crypto market is creating a domino affect. Although we have seen sharp corrections in Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies in the recent past, the total market cap continued to increase. However, this recent sell-off is more broad-based as reflected by the shrinking market cap, which was $453 billion as of writing.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin Futures on the CBOE plummeted to an all-time low at $9225.

Most experts see the next significant support for the BTC/USD pair at the 100-DMA level, which is located near $8,800. A decisive break below this level could bring in more technical sellers and trigger another big led down in the short term.