Cryptocurrency markets have pulled back from last Thursday’s big gains, with Bitcoin (BTC) slipping about 2% over the past 24 hours and more sizable declines in the altcoin sector. At press time, BTC had fallen to as low as $29,679 Monday afternoon before bouncing modestly to $29,900. Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, dropped to $1,880, also about a 2% decline over the same period.
Smaller cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, have suffered even steeper declines. Ripple’s XRP, which led Thursday’s surge after a partially favorable court ruling in a lawsuit involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), tumbled 4.4% in the last 24 hours. SOL and XLM, the native tokens of the Solana and Stellar networks, respectively, also shed more than 4% over the same period. Ripple is now lower about 15% from Thursday’s high, though still well above its pre-court ruling level. Solana is off about 10% from its Thursday high and XLM down about 25%, though both remain higher over the past week.
The day’s worst performer was LDO, the governance token of liquid staking protocol Lido Finance, which nosedived almost 12%.