By Alun John

HONG KONG: After a firming overnight, HONG KONG rose 1.5% on Tuesday in Asia. However, many cryptocurrency traders were still on edge following Saturday’s sudden and sharp plunge.

After closing Monday at 2.2% higher, the last world’s most valuable cryptocurrency was around $50,800.

The general trust in crypto remains high, and the market is returning to normal as Monday saw an increase in risk-on sentiment. Omicron’s effect looks a lot milder than the market has digested,” said Edison Pun, senior market analyst at Saxo Markets in Hong Kong.

After a severe storm, Tuesday was calm.

Bitcoin dropped as high as 22% on Saturday to under $42,000 due to a mix of profit-taking as well as macro-economic worries. However, the price rebounded a bit later in session with weak weekend liquidity exacerbating prices’ movements.

The cause of the sell-off was not clear to cryptocurrency analysts. They did however point to the fact that there was a drop in margin borrowing, in futures positions and activity from large bitcoin holders as signs of mass liquidation.

The crash marked the largest since bitcoin’s May 19th price collapse of 31%. Coinglass’ cryptocurrency analytics platform, Coinglass reports that bitcoin’s market cap has dropped to approximately $932 Billion from $1.25 T. on Oct. 21.

Bitcoin reached a record $69,000 in November 10.

Ether (the second most popular cryptocurrency) was down 0.3% at $4,340.

Ethereum was at 0.085, just one day off its nearly four-year high.