Cryptocurrency prices slid lower on Thursday, with Bitcoin (BTC) revisiting the bottom threshold of its month-long trading range. Ether (ETH) buckled below $1,900, while Ripple’s XRP pared some of its impressive gains from previous days, dropping 6%. Chainlink’s LINK, however, defied the market slump and was the only crypto asset with sizable gains among the 40 largest tokens by market capitalization.
The token surged 15% through the day above $8 for the first time in nearly three months as some large investors – whales in crypto jargon – acquired $6 million of tokens, said journalists. The price action came after Chainlink released an interoperability protocol that facilitates communication between blockchains and banks, tested by interbank communication system Swift.
Crypto investors might have been concerned by a sell-off in tech stocks. The NASDAQ 100 index (NDQ) declined 2% during the day, as investors dumped shares of tech giants Tesla (TSLA) and Netflix (NFLX) after their underwhelming quarterly earnings reports, dropping some 9%.
Seems like we are just having a risk-off day in general after a massive run for weeks, with investors taking profits and rebalancing, said Brett Sifling, director at investment firm Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management.
The CoinDesk Market Index, which tracks the performance of a basket of digital assets, gained early in the day then retreated and was down 1.26% over the last 24 hours. Cryptocurrency prices have a history of correlating with risk assets such as the tech-heavy NDQ, although the relationship has wobbled this year.