Bitcoin prices plunged over 10% and traded below the
23,000 mark on Tuesday as a part of broader declines in cryptocurrencies after
a sharp rise in US inflation triggered risk-off sentiment. The digital token is
down over 50% so far this year, and trading over 70% below its record high of
$69,000 it had hit in November 2021. It plunged to the lowest in around 18
months after the freezing of withdrawals by the Celsius lending platform added
to concern that systemic risk in the crypto ecosystem will accelerate the
digital-asset market meltdown.

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The global cryptocurrency market cap was at $966.70
billion, down 4.15% in the last 24 hours. However, the total cryptocurrency 24
hours trading volume is $160.14 billion. Traders are anticipating a more
aggressive pace of interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve after data
showed US inflation jumped to a fresh 40-year high in May, reported Bloomberg,
which triggered a selloff in risk assets including crypto and stocks.
Cryptocurrency prices have been in a slump this year as the Federal Reserve
withdraws stimulus and hikes rates to combat inflation.

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Bitcoin fear and greed index on Tuesday, June 14, 2022,
went from the extreme fear level of 11 to the level of 8 as per the
alternative. me. The Fear and Greed index is a technique for assessing
investors’ emotions toward the market.  

Bitcoin is currently trading at $22,769.80, down by
8.14%. In the last 24 hours, the highest it touched was $24,833.71 and the
lowest was $20,950.82. Bitcoin has a current market cap of $434,046,187,780. It
has a circulating supply of 19,066,993.00. BTC coins have a maximum supply of
21,000,000 coins.

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Amid
crypto collapse, Binance pauses bitcoin withdrawals citing ‘stuck transaction’

As the crypto meltdown continues, leading exchange
Binance said it was suspending the withdrawals of bitcoin, the most widely traded
cryptocurrency, due to a “struck transaction” that has led to a backlog.
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, in the initial tweet, said the issue
would be resolved within 30 minutes. However, he later clarified that the
withdrawals will remain paused for a “bit longer” period. “Likely this is
going to take a bit longer to fix than my initial estimate,” he said.

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“This is only impacting the Bitcoin network. You can
still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20,” Zhao added.

Tron’s
stablecoin lost its dollar peg, Justin Sun swears to deploy $2 billion to prop
up

The Tron network’s stablecoin, USDD, lost its peg to the
US dollar on Monday, dipping to as low as 91 cents, as crypto markets dipped as
investors grew increasingly concerned about consistently high inflation,
tightening financial conditions and a potential recession.

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On Monday, Tron founder Justin Sun tweeted that the
funding rate on the Binance exchange for betting against or “shorting,” the
Tron blockchain’s native TRX token stood at negative 500%, a whopping rate that
suggests many investors are clamouring to get into that trade. According to
Sun, TronDAO, “will deploy $2 billion to fight them”.