Bitcoin and Altcoins See Red as Crypto Market Slumps at Start of Monday's Trading Session

The crypto market saw further selling pressure at the start of Monday's trading session, as traders considered recent events from the weekend.

Crypto prices continued their sell-off on Monday morning as several major crypto assets were trading in the red. Bitcoin was down 0.6% in the last 24 hours, trading above $95,000, while some altcoins lost up to 12%.

However, XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) were hit harder by the sell-off. XRP was trading at $2.49, down 4.1% in the last 24 hours. Solana, which has been underperforming recently, continued its sell-off and was leading losses among the top 10 cryptos, down 8.11% in the last 24 hours to $157. Cardano was also down, trading at $0.733 as of press time, down 5.89% on the day.

Here are the key recent events that may have contributed to the sell-off:

Early gains in cryptos and crypto-related stocks were hit by the $1.5 billion Bybit hack on Friday. The hack targeted one of Bybit's offline "cold" wallets, which are normally regarded as secure due to their lack of internet connectivity. However, the cold wallet was breached, resulting in the theft of 1.4 billion in Ethereum.

Hackers obtained access by exploiting a sophisticated method that included a manipulated user interface (UI) and URL. This allowed the attackers to change the smart contract logic and redirect the funds to an unknown address. The stolen assets were subsequently distributed among several wallets and traded on decentralized exchanges.

On Friday, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index unexpectedly fell to 64.7, compared to estimates of 店で7.8, causing equities to fall. Inflation forecasts in the same survey increased to 3.5%, up from 3.3% previously.

The continued profit-taking on the market suggests traders might be selling on rallies as bearish sentiment persists.