Cryptocurrency markets are showing a slight bearish correction this Friday as the global crypto market valuation dipped by $20 billion from yesterday’s $960 billion to a current level of $946 billion. While Ethereum manages to hold support above the $1,300 level, Bitcoin dipped below $20k today, as trading volume is down significantly for both crypto assets. Let’s look at relevant finance, Bitcoin, and Ethereum news affecting markets today.

Key Points:

• The cryptocurrency market has lost $20 billion in valuation today, currently at $940 billion.
• Binance Smart Chain Bridge exploit provided hackers with $100M in funds, which were promptly frozen by BSC node validators.
• The fear and Greed index is at 23, signaling extreme fear in the market but better conditions than last week.
• Ethereum continues to hold support at $1,300, but today’s declining trading volume is a bearish signal for this weekend.

Crypto Market News

Today’s big news likely responsible for the bearish momentum is the $100 million exploit for the BNB Smart Chain. Luckily, Binance pushed an update on the blockchain, which effectively froze the hackers’ accounts, preventing them from cashing out the funds and causing further losses to BNB and the general crypto community.

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted further details regarding the exploit, assuring traders and investors that their funds are SAFU:

The tweet specified that the exploit was due to a vulnerability found on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, which resulted in the bridge issuing extra BNB, enabling the hackers to take advantage of the system and effectively siphon millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency via the bridge.

Luckily, the Binance team managed to address the issue and freeze the hacker’s accounts before he could cash out the coins. While BNB’s price suffered a slight 4% loss in the past 24 hours, a disaster has been mitigated by freezing the funds.

Bitcoin and Ethereum News

There isn’t any critical Bitcoin news this Friday, as all eyes are on the Binance Smart Chain and BNB as the team deals with the aftermath of the exploit.

The fear and greed index is at 23, signaling extreme fear, but not as bad as last week when the indicator was at 20 points.

When it comes to Ethereum, there isn’t any significant news this Friday. The market performs relatively well, with ETH holding support above the $1,300 level. While trading volume is down substantially this Friday, that’s only to be expected as the weekend is coming up.

A rally toward $1,400 is possible, but we likely won’t see any substantial price action for ETHUSD until next week. In fact, with the low trading volume, we may see ETH dip to the high $1,200s range before bouncing back up above $1,300.

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