Several major cryptocurrencies -- including bitcoin and ether -- have suffered a large sell-off over the last 24 hours, wiping more than $200 billion from the total market cap as of Thursday, according to data from price-tracking site CoinMarketCap.
The broad plunge continues a months-long downward trend, likely driven by rising inflation, economic concerns related to the war in Ukraine and a corresponding drop in major stock market indices.
The change over last 24 hours has also been attributed to the collapse of terraUSD, one of the largest stablecoins. TerraUSD lost about 30% of its value earlier this week and dropped to approximately 40 cents per coin as of Thursday afternoon. A stablecoin's value isn't supposed to fluctuate or dip below $1.
On Monday, the price of bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, also fell below $30,000 for the first time since July 20, 2021.