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Black Monday: Ethereum, Ripple, Solana and others crash

The new trading week starts bloody for the crypto sector.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
Black Monday: Ethereum, Ripple, Solana and others crash

For the crypto sector, the new trading week starts bloody. While Bitcoin, helped by the escalating trade war, remains fairly in step with traditional financial markets, the outlook is much more grim for many altcoins.

At first, many altcoins looked surprisingly resilient after Donald Trump announced a historic import tariff package last Wednesday evening. But the weekend delivered the blow: countries like China announced harsh countermeasures in response to the US tariffs, triggering panic among investors.

That panic was most evident in the altcoins. Since Wednesday, price losses have been steep:

  • Ethereum (ETH) is down 24 percent. The second-largest crypto briefly touched the $1,400 mark. At the time of writing ETH is trading at $1,482.
  • XRP (Ripple) fell almost 23 percent since the tariff announcement. The coin is now about 50 percent below January’s all-time high. XRP is trading at $1.74.
  • Solana (SOL) shows a similarly negative picture: a 21 percent drop. That marks a new low. The coin briefly fell below the psychological $100 threshold and is now back at February 2024 levels, miles from the January peak.
  • Cardano (ADA) narrowly escaped the “minus-20% club” with a 19.5 percent drop since Wednesday. ADA is currently at $0.54.

The damage is also sizable in the futures markets. A total of $1.4 billion in positions were liquidated. Bitcoin accounted for about 30 percent of that (roughly $483 million), followed by Ethereum with $408 million. Solana and XRP each accounted for about 5 percent ($71 million and $67 million).

The overall picture is clear: Bitcoin is faring relatively better than the rest of the market. Since the start of the year, BTC’s dominance has climbed to 63.6 percent, the highest since February 2021.

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