Cryptocurrency Traders Lose $115 Billion in 24 Hours as Bitcoin Bloodbath Continues

Sat Feb 03 2018
Nikki Bailey (1366 articles)
Cryptocurrency Traders Lose $115 Billion in 24 Hours as Bitcoin Bloodbath Continues

Bitcoin fell below $ 7,600 in some trades as its heavy slide continued into Friday.

The charts for cryptocurrency market capitalizations are a sea of red right now. In the 24 hours ending at 6:45 a.m. ET Friday, Bitcoin fell over 17%, Ethereum fell more than 32%, Ripple was down 38%, and Bitcoin Cash was down over 27%.

All in all, that’s $ 115 billion off cryptocurrency market caps in one day, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

At the time of writing, Coinbase’s GDAX exchange was seeing Bitcoin trades taking place around $ 7,990. Comparing that to the nearly $ 20,000 that Bitcoin almost reached in early December may be a little unfair, as that was a very brief moment, but the virtual currency subsequently spent a lot of time hovering around the $ 15,000 mark. Those days seem long gone now.

To recap the possible reasons for the current collapse:

  • India has become the latest country to seriously talk about a regulatory crackdown on bitcoin.
  • There are fears that bitcoin’s lofty valuation may have been artificially propped up.
  • Facebook has banned ads that promote cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

Whatever the cause, it seems a Bitcoin panic is in full swing. The question now is how low it will go before the selloff stops.

Nikki Bailey

Nikki Bailey

Nikki Bailey reports on US Stocks. She covers also economy and related aspects. She has been tracking US Stock markets for several years now. She is based in New York