KEY POINTS

  • Bitcoin, Ethereum plunge
  • Top tokens trade in red
  • Meme cryptos dip 

The cryptocurrency continued to dip sharply Tuesday as top tokens Bitcoin and Ethereum showed no signs of recovery. At the same time, Web3 adoption is growing as major big tech companies are keenly adopting the trend.

The global market cap was down 4.83% at $1.46trillion, as of 3.32 a.m. ET, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Bitcoin dipped 4.76% to $31,952. The top coin slumped below the $30k mark at some point Tuesday for the first time since July 2021. This, as per crypto experts, happened as cryptocurrencies track sinking markets with investors spooked by aggressive U.S. monetary tightening and surging inflation.

Bitcoin by market value fell as low as $29,764 in Tuesday trade, before recovering slightly, extending a recent collapse in price as investors desert assets viewed as risky.

The top coin's value has more than halved since a November surge that saw the token hit a record of nearly $69,000.

Ethereum, too, plunged 2.29% to $2393. Barring a slight uptick in Binance USD and USD Coin, all other top tokens plunged. Meme tokens Shiba Inu and Dogecoin too dipped.

TerraUSD, the world's fourth-largest stablecoin, lost a third of its value, spooking cryptocurrency investors. UST dipped 9% to $0.9068.

Meanwhile, market insiders appreciate the fact that big tech companies are still showing growing interest in the Web3 space despite a slump in prices.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram is testing NFT integrations from this week, joining the likes of Google which recently launched its Web3 team to capitalise on the booming popularity of crypto.

CoinDCX said, "Yet as tech giants make inroads into the digital asset sector, crypto innovators may have a slight head start here given that they have been there from the start and understand the ins and outs of the industry."

"The success of the Web3 sector hinges on both working closely together — a necessary symbiotic relationship between big tech and crypto innovators to better serve the nascent industry and its users," the Indian exchange told International Business Times.

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

Crypto
The underlying message is that self-custody of crypto is far too risky, in contrast to the security of traditional bank or brokerage accounts and crypto institutions.  Pixabay