Crypto On Dec. 9: Bitcoin Continues To Slide, Ether, Luna Surge

Bitcoin managed to stay above the $50K mark Thursday even as it lost 0.79% of it value in the last 24 hours. Rival Ethereum, however, surged even as global cryptocurrency market cap slid 0.08% to $2.37 trillion as of 2.50 a.m. ET, the CoinMarketCap data showed.

Bitcoin was trading at $50,109, continuing the fall since the weekend crypto market crash that coincided with centralized cryptocurrency trading exchange BitMart's confirmation of a security breach where the equivalent of $196 million was stolen from investors storing programmable money on BitMart's network.

Following the breach, the chief executive officers of more than half a dozen crypto firms in the U.S. appeared before Congress for a five-hour session to defend the industry as lawmakers and regulators wanted to bring the more than $2 trillion market under government scrutiny.

Tether and Polkadot also shrank in the last 24 hours. Meme crypto Shiba Inu and its rival Dogecoin slid too. However, Terra LUNA, which is now trading at the 10th position in the top cryptos, surged over 10% in the last 24 hours.

Binance Coin and Solana were also in the green. Cardano and XRP also rose in the last 24 hours.

The crypto market is extremely volatile and experts recommend investors not make decisions based on the sudden shift in prices.