It's been a wild and wacky day in the world of crypto once again. The overall crypto market has headed lower, with the aggregate market capitalization of all digital assets sinking more than 4% over the past 24 hours. However, certain notable tokens are piquing investor interest amid this decline. Among the top cryptos leading the market lower today are OKB (CRYPTO:OKB), Axie Infinity (AXS -1.27%), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH -0.13%). As of 3 p.m. ET, these three tokens saw declines of 11.3%, 7.1%, and 4.6%, respectively, over the past 24 hours.
Let's dive into what's driving today's outsized move in these three popular cryptocurrencies.
Flash crash driving some negative sentiment in the crypto sector
OKB saw the most dramatic drop, actually giving up 50% of its value in a flash crash earlier this morning. While many investors may be taking solace in the fact that this token has recovered a significant portion of these losses, and the team behind the OKX crypto exchange is investigating this crash, it's certainly a development that's worth paying attention to.
It should be noted that both Axie Infinity and Bitcoin Cash saw a swift decline right around the time of this OKB flash crash. Word spreads fast in the crypto sector. However, it's intriguing to see such correlated moves across these three rather disparate projects. Big swings are often seen during Asian trading hours, so this isn't necessarily out of the ordinary, but it's quite something for North American traders to wake up to.
Axie Infinity's decline today is notable in light of recent developments around the launch of Axie Infinity: Origins Season 7, which is a sneak peek of the project's upcoming Axie Infinity: Homeland gaming features and other new developments. Sentiment around blockchain-based gaming has been fickle, and today's decline in Axie Infinity isn't isolated, with other top gaming-related cryptos seeing similar declines during today's session. Investors appear to be focusing on the fundamentals when it comes to such projects, which haven't progressed as quickly as many may have initially anticipated a couple of years ago.
Today's move in Bitcoin Cash is also intriguing, as this is a project that's actually been on quite the roll lately. I recently discussed some of the impressive metrics in terms of transaction volume on the Bitcoin Cash network. However, news today that Bitcoin Cash repayments could begin as part of the Mt. Gox debacle years ago appears to be driving near-term concern around selling pressure for this token.
Where to go from here?
Flash crashes certainly aren't conducive to positive investor sentiment, so it makes sense that many alt coins saw marked declines following what we saw take place on the OKX exchange earlier this morning. There are undoubtedly a number of fundamental structural concerns many conservative investors have about crypto. The thought of someone pressing the wrong button or writing the wrong line of code, and everyone loses everything is a real risk. Thus, the more such events happen (flash crashes, exchange issues, rug pulls), the less enthusiasm mainstream investors may have for the world of digital assets.
The recovery OKB and other tokens have seen since this early morning move is something crypto bulls can hang their hat on. And with many top alt coins continuing to consolidate and trade sideways this afternoon, it appears the market is settling down, at least for the time being.
For those bullish on OKB, Axie Infinity, or Bitcoin Cash, these tokens are still trading at a discount. While I think investors should probably wait for the dust to settle before jumping in, there's a reason why these tokens saw immediate buying interest earlier today. These are three tokens I'll keep on my watch list for now.
