The flagship cryptocurrency fell below $35,000 on Monday. At the moment of writing, bitcoin somewhat recovered and was traded at $35,182.

The top altcoins followed suit and started to go down. Last week, Ethereum tumbled by 27% and Cardano plummeted by 17.1%, while Solana and Polkadot plunged by 35%.

According to CoinGecko, a popular digital currency ranking website, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market nosedived by 22% to $1.72 trillion last week.

Market participants continue to close their positions on BTC amid a fall in the US equity market. On Friday, stock indices dropped sharply. Besides, January may turn out to be the worst month on Wall Street in the past 14 years.

Last week, the leading S&P 500 index was incurring losses for four days out of five. A weekly pullback exceeded 5%, the worst performance since the fall of 2020.

In addition, the stock price of the biggest cryptocurrency companies is decreasing. MicroStrategy, the largest holder of BTC lost 17% on Sunday and over 31% since early January. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was down by 13% on Friday alone. The strengthening of the downtrend in stock markets could lead to a more noticeable pullback in cryptocurrencies, experts say.

Meanwhile, El Salvador bought another 410 BTC, taking advantage of the substantial decline in the main cryptocurrency. The Central American country already owns more than 1,500 digital coins. Bitcoin officially became legal tender in El Salvador in September 2021.

Due to unpredictable behavior in the cryptocurrency market, experts are forced to make the most unexpected predictions about the future of digital assets. Nowadays, the cryptocurrency market is on the verge of a new supercycle, Quantum Fintech Group founder Harry Yeh noted. It could lead to BTC skyrocketing to $400,000. According to Harry Yeh, the hawkish Federal Reserve and widespread adoption of stablecoins, digital coins whose value is tied to tangible assets, could trigger a new cycle.

Less optimistic crypto experts suggest bitcoin and the global digital asset market will enter a prolonged downtrend. So, bitcoin risks collapsing to $20,000, and market capitalization plunging to $830–$900 billion.