In the early hours of March 9-10, the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange token – HT – experienced a sharp decline of 93% in its exchange rate.
The CEO of the exchange, Justin Sun, attributed this to “market behavior.” Within a span of just 10 minutes, the token’s value plummeted from $4.6 to $0.31, before recovering to $3.87.
According to Coingecko, the token suffered a daily decline of 20%. Sun clarified that the price fluctuations were caused by certain users triggering a series of liquidations in both the spot and contract markets.
He also assured users that their assets were safe and that the exchange would cover the losses. Huobi announced plans to launch a $100 million fund to improve liquidity.
Meanwhile, the value of bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time in two months. Market analysts attributed this to the liquidation of the Silvergate cryptobank, as well as the release of the US budget for 2023.
The Ethereum exchange rate also fell by 7.9%, with the coin now trading at $1,420. Many other popular altcoins also experienced a drop of up to 5% in capitalization.
Some tokens and altcoins suffered a much larger decline, such as Tron cryptocurrency, which decreased by 12.5%.