According to crypto news from the crypto market, Bitcoin, Ether, and other leading altcoins suddenly dropped as news about the arrest of the founders of the Sahmourai wallet by the US DOJ came to the surface. At the same time, Middle East tensions continued, and a spike in price volatility followed the halving.
On April 24, 2023, Cointelegraph reported that Keone Rodriguez, the creator of the cryptocurrency wallet resource Samourai wallet news, and its CTO, William Hill, will both be charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and another count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Within the next hour, Bitcoin's price had fallen by 3.6%. Its price dropped below the primary support zone of US$63,710; however, it recovered slightly at US$64,546 per Coinbase data.
However, Ethereum alone dropped by 2.51% within this period, followed by additional losses, declining to US$3,158. The most prominent altcoins equally lost value. Pepes decreased by 6.4% in a short while, Shiba dropped by 2.7%, and Doge dropped by 3.2% temporarily. A sudden and significant price movement in the first and second-ranked cryptocurrencies according to market value provoked diverse margin calls across the market.
According to CoinGlass data, Bitcoin had US$33.08 million worth of long liquidations within the last day, Ethereum had US$29.88 million, and practically US$23 million in long liquidations across the crypto market.
The cryptocurrency market crisis comes against the marred peace in Syria, therefore agitating political tensions in the Middle East. On the 24th of April, the Israel military reportedly hit more than 40 locations that were connected to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, according to area-based media.
Predictably, the crypto market community is already in full swing of waiting, at least for the short-term market fluctuations following the Bitcoin Halving event, which occurred just on April 20th.
Pseudo-anonymous crypto market trader Rekt Capital tweeted on April 24 with the caption: Net crypto bull run market peak does not happen before late 2025, which equals roughly 546 days after the next halving.
Meanwhile, the sharp plunge in the price of Bitcoin was against the overall positive sentiment among the crypto traders.
The Fear and Greed Index, which measures sentiment, shows a rise in greed, reaching 72 now. This is 15 points up from last week. The cryptocurrency community has criticized the recent arrest, considering it as another attempt by the United States government to crack down harshly on crypto.
"These programmers are threatened with up to 25 years in prison for writing codes. The US is sending the message that nobody aiming to conduct a private transaction is safe," crypto-analyst Ryan Adams said in his April 24 post.
By contrast, earlier that same day, Fred Krueger stated in one of his X posts that the arrest unfairly "harmed" Bitcoin's image. Crypto writer Luke Mikic told his 26,800 followers, who are X enthusiasts, that "this attack by the US government on Samourai wallet is bigger than many people think."
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