The entire market of cyber-coins lost almost $700 billion since the beginning of 2018. At present, the crypto-ecosystem is going through a massive sell-off, led by the bitcoin’s dip. As the media outlets highlight, the reason for the correction lies in the growing investors’ fear over potential regulatory oversight and turmoil after bitcoin cash split.
Market Plunging Deeper Than Ever Before in 2018
As of writing, the total crypto market cap makes up $137.6 billion. This is $685.8 billion less than what the market was in January this year ($82.4 billion), according to CoinMarketCap info. This is also the lowest rate not only within the past week but since September 2017.
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Altcoins Going Down
Apart from bitcoin, which lost 75% of its value this year, other currencies suffered the dip. For instance, the second most valuable coin XRP, emitted by Ripple, went down by 6.7% on November 23, and right now is trading below the margin of $0.40. Ether, in its turn, decreased by 7% and as of writing is worth $122.
Reasons?
The market went down by 80% as the first cryptocurrency in the world — bitcoin — also lost a significant part of its value. As of writing, the «big daddy» is trading at $4,277, the lowest rate this year. Crypto-prices were hit, according to CNBC, by the recent schism in the blockchain of bitcoin’s «son» — bitcoin cash.
The latter appeared last year August and now split into two coins — «Bitcoin ABC» and «Bitcoin SV». As it is known, hard forks take place when there’s discord on how to scale the crypto to deal with the higher scope of trading.
Another trigger for the intense selloff could be the regulatory scrutiny. A few days ago Bloomberg reported that the US Department of Justice is inquiring whether crypto-traders used coin tether and trading platform Bitfinex to maintain the price of BTC.
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