Yesterday saw an abrupt drop in Bitcoin, dropping about $2,000 in the hours after the release of the Binance-DOJ news.
Similar erratic movements were seen by the altcoins, with Binance’s native coin emerging as the largest loser, as was to be expected.
After a few days of sideways trade at roughly $36,500, the leading cryptocurrency attempted to break through the $38,000 barrier once more on Monday, but to no effect. The bears saw through the plan quickly, as they had in previous attempts, and stopped Bitcoin from reaching $38,000 this time.
After then, there were rumors that Binance had reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which initially helped the cryptocurrency market. Prices, however, soured when everything became official on Tuesday as the DOJ revealed a deal with Binance that required the latter to pay a $4.3 billion fine and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, to resign.
Within minutes, Bitcoin fell almost $2,000 to $35,600. But it recovered and soared past $36,600, where it is at right now, leaving more than $200 million in liquidations.