Cryptocurrency markets continued to pull back from last Thursday's big gains, with bitcoin (BTC) slipping about 2% over the past 24 hours alongside more sizable declines in the altcoin sector.

Bitcoin fell to as low as $29,679 Monday afternoon and had bounced modestly at press time to $29,900. Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, dropped to $1,880, also about a 2% decline over the past 24 hours.

Smaller cryptocurrencies – or so-called altcoins – have suffered even steeper declines. Ripple's XRP, which led Thursday's breakneck surge after a partially favorable court ruling in a lawsuit involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), tumbled 4.4% in the last 24 hours. SOL and XLM, the native token's of the Solana and Stellar networks, respectively, also shed more than 4% over the same period.

Ripple is now lower about 15% from Thursday's high, though still well above its pre-court ruling level. Solana is off about 10% from its Thursday high and XLM down about 25%, though both also remain higher over the past week.

Among the day's worst performers is LDO, the governance token of liquid staking protocol Lido Finance, which has nosedived almost 12%.

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Krisztian Sandor

Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.