The cryptocurrency market went on a free fall Sunday as recession fears and soaring geopolitical tensions caused the worst intraday decline for the risk-on sector in 2024.

What Happened: Market bellwether Bitcoin hit an intraday low of $52,559 Sunday night, a level not seen since late February. The world's largest cryptocurrency rebounded to $54,000 during the volatile trading session but was still down 10% in the last 24 hours.

Ethereum hit an intraday bottom of $2,152, recording its steepest drop since December 2022. The second-largest cryptocurrency was among the market's biggest losers, tumbling 20% over the last 24 hours.

The market witnessed liquidations of $775.89 million in the last 24 hours, with $665 million in bullish bets getting wiped out.

The Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index flashed "Fear" as of this writing, implying potential for further sell-offs and price dumps.

Top Losers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market plunged below $2 trillion for the first time since February 25, following a slump of 11.50% in the last 24 hours.

The cryptocurrency sell-offs came alongside Japan's stock market slump, with the blue-chip Nikkei 225 sinking over 5% after Monday's market open.

U.S. stock futures also bled Sunday night. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures sank 300 points, or 0.75%, as of 9 p.m. EDT.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 tumbled 1.39%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dipped 2.33%.

The blue-chip indices were coming from another loss-making week after a report revealing high unemployment on Friday fuelled investors' fears of a recession.

Coupled with this, the rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the potential of a full-blown war spooked investors.

Analyst Notes: Widely-followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinex noted that August and September have historically been the worst months for Bitcoin, with average losses of -7.82% and -5.58%, respectively.

However, October has invariably brought hope, with average gains of 22.90%.

Historically, August and September are the worst months for #Bitcoin price performance, with average losses of -7.82% and -5.58%, respectively. pic.twitter.com/y9lGeHcFf1

— Ali (@ali_charts) August 4, 2024

Meanwhile, whale investors were accumulating Bitcoins in hordes. Popular X account CryptoRus revealed that more than 64,000 BTC, worth $3.5 billion at the time of writing, was moved out of exchanges over the last month, the biggest such move since 2015.

About 64,000 $BTC has been moved off of exchanges by whale addresses in the last 30 days – The biggest spike since 2015.
I think the whales are loading up in preparation for #Bitcoin's next big move pic.twitter.com/BI3NC0hqWP

— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) August 5, 2024

Question – does anyone have any further info on the rumor that Jump Trading have been liquidating their crypto portfolios?

— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) August 4, 2024