$220 Million Worth Liquidated as Bitcoin (BTC), Altcoins Mark Second Day of Losses

According to CoinGlass, about $222.56 million of crypto positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, with Bitcoin accounting for $52.54 million of that.

Due to stronger losses than BTC over the past 24 hours, Ethereum had a bigger liquidation of $53.19 million in value. A crypto crackdown in the U.S. and concerns that longer-term increases in interest rates may reduce investor interest in speculative assets have hurt Bitcoin's new year recovery.

Bitcoin fell to lows of $21,636 on Feb. 10 as it continued its decline from highs of $23,451 attained on Feb. 8. The biggest cryptocurrency had a 6% three-day decline, which is the worst during that period since December. Bitcoin was changing hands at $21,770 as of press time.

Alternative cryptocurrencies, known as "altcoins," also took a hit in what will be the second day of losses. Large-cap altcoins recorded losses between 4% and 8%.

Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), XRP (XRP), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE) and several other altcoins were trading in the red at press time.

Polkadot (DOT), Fantom (FTM), Lido DAO (LDO) and the Graph (GRT) were posting bigger losses between 10% and 15%.

Kraken to cease crypto staking

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay $30 million to settle claims made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it broke securities law with its crypto-staking products.

As part of the settlement, the exchange will also stop offering these products in the country. According to the SEC, Kraken's staking service was an illegal sale of securities.

Crypto mom and SEC commissioner Hester Peirce released a statement on the Kraken settlement, stating she does not count the shutdown of its staking service as a win for investors.