Bitcoin drops sharply and suddenly - and now cryptos across the board are getting slammed
- Bitcoin dropped sharply, falling $500, or about 5%, in just over an hour.
- Other cryptocurrencies fell even more sharply, with ether and Ripple's XRP both losing about 12%.
- There does not appear to be a clear catalyst for the sell-off.
- You can track the price of bitcoin and all the other cryptocurrencies here.
The price of cryptocurrencies plunged across the board suddenly and sharply Wednesday morning, seemingly with no clear reason to do so.
Having been steady at around $7,350 per coin during most of trading during both Asian and European morning hours, around 5:50 a.m. ET (10:50 a.m. BST) bitcoin lost more than $200 in mere minutes. It took another leg down an hour later, falling below the psychologically significant $7,000 mark.
By midday in London (7:00 a.m. ET) the largest crypto by market value was trading at $6,984 per coin, a fall of 5.1% on the day.
Bitcoin was the most obvious casualty of the sudden sharp fall, but other major cryptocurrencies including ether, Ripple's XRP and bitcoin cash fell even more steeply. Here's the scoreboard:
- Ether -12.2% at $257.45
- Ripple's XRP -11.8% at $0.3018
- Bitcoin cash -12.6% at $562.02
- Litecoin -10.9% at $62.06
Although the drop seems unexplained, Tanya Abrosimova of FX Street speculates that the introduction of a registration process for popular instant bitcoin exchange ShapeShift may have spooked some users and triggered at least part of the drop seen on Wednesday.
Wednesday's selling comes after several days of strong gains for cryptocurrencies, despite the recent rejection by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission of several bitcoin-based ETFs.