Bitcoin falls to lowest since January, in line with tumbling stock markets

"I think everything within crypto is still classed as a risk asset, and similar to what we've seen with the Nasdaq, most cryptocurrencies are getting pummelled," said Matt Dibb, COO of Singapore-based crypto platform Stack Funds.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.5 percent last week and has lost 22 percent year to date, hurt by the prospect of persistent inflation forcing the US Federal Reserve to hike rates despite slowing growth. Nasdaq futures were down a further 0.8 percent in Asia trade on Monday morning.

Dibb said other factors in the decline over the weekend -- bitcoin closed on Friday around $36,000 -- were the crypto market's notoriously low liquidity over the weekends, and also short-lived fears that algorithmic stablecoin called Terra USD (UST) could lose its peg to the dollar.

Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to other traditional assets, often the US dollar.

UST is closely watched by the crypto community both because of the novel way in which it maintains its 1:1 dollar peg, and because its founders have set out plans to build a reserve of $10 billion worth of bitcoin to back the stablecoin, meaning volatility in UST could potentially spill over into bitcoin markets.

Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, which underpins the ethereum network, fell as low as $2,421 on Monday, its lowest since late February.