The cryptocurrency market has experienced a significant downturn, with Bitcoin's price plummeting to a multi-week low of $103,000 over the past 12 hours. This sharp decline is speculated to be driven by the latest escalation in tensions between the US and China. The negative sentiment has also heavily impacted the altcoin market, with most alternative cryptocurrencies suffering substantial price drops. However, CRO has notably bucked this trend, registering a double-digit price surge.

Bitcoin's recent struggles began after it skyrocketed to almost $112,000 last Thursday, charting a new all-time high. Since then, the leading cryptocurrency has been unable to recapture or even sustain its momentum. The initial downturn started the next day when US President Trump recommended a new set of tariffs against the EU. Although he delayed their implementation for over a month, BTC failed to bounce off decisively and was stopped at around $110,000 on a couple of occasions.

The selling pressure on Bitcoin intensified following a significant rejection at $109,000 on Thursday, which drove BTC down to $105,000. It recovered some ground to $106,000 yesterday, but the bears reemerged and pushed the cryptocurrency south to a 12-day low of just over $103,000. This decline transpired after Trump said China “violated” the trade agreement between the two, while Beijing responded kindly.

Although BTC has regained some ground and now sits above $103,500, its market cap has slid to $2.06 trillion on CG. Concurrently, its dominance over the alts has shot up to 61.3%, suggesting either a flight to relative safety within the crypto space or that altcoins have experienced even more severe devaluations compared to Bitcoin.

The alternative coins have marked some big losses over the past day. Ethereum is close to breaking below $2,500 after a 4.5% drop. XRP has plunged beneath $2.15, while DOGE, SOL, ADA, SUI, LINK, and AVAX have plummeted by up to 9%.

The situation with the lower-cap alts is even more painful, as many, such as ENA, INJ, VIRTUAL, and PEPE, have charted double-digit price declines, underscoring the widespread bearish sentiment across the broader cryptocurrency market.

CRO is the only exception to this market-wide bleed-out, having gained an impressive 17% in the past day. It is currently trading close to $0.11, defying the overarching negative trend.

The cumulative effect of these price drops has been a substantial reduction in the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization. Roughly $200 billion has been wiped from the total market value in the past two days, bringing the current total crypto market cap down to $3.360 trillion.