Dogecoin has plunged more than 75% since Elon Musk's SNL performance in May, shedding $70 billion in market cap

• Dogecoin has dropped more than 75% since the hype peaked around the token when Elon Musk appeared on SNL in May.
• It was the worst-performing major cryptocurrency on Tuesday, as investors fled the asset.
• Cryptocurrencies have crashed since May after Musk criticised bitcoin and China cracked down.

Dogecoin continued to plunge on Tuesday as cryptocurrencies tumbled in the wake of a fresh crackdown by Chinese authorities.

The meme cryptocurrency lost 24% over 24 hours to hit $0.17413, according to CoinGecko. That was around 76% lower than its record high of more than $0.70, reached in May amid expectations that Elon Musk would use his "Saturday Night Live" performance to pump the token.

The dogecoin market was worth around $94 billion at its peak, but had dropped to roughly $23 billion on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko - a $71 billion loss.

Dogecoin suffered the heaviest losses of any major cryptocurrency on Tuesday. Yet others didn't fare much better, with binance coin down around 20% and cardano off by around 17%. Bitcoin and ether, the two biggest cryptocurrencies, dropped but less sharply.

Cryptocurrencies have fallen dramatically since May after Elon Musk halted payments for Tesla in bitcoin, citing its "insane" energy use, and China started cracking down on crypto "mining."

Yet dogecoin has been hit particularly hard, with the token plummeting back to earth after skyrocketing in the spring.

Analysts have long warned that dogecoin is a case of speculative mania, with the price influenced more by celebrity-induced buzz than anything fundamental.

"In this climate it's not a surprise that dogecoin, which began its crypto journey as a joke, has suffered one of the steepest declines in recent days," said Susannah Streeter, senior markets analyst at broker Hargreaves Lansdown.

Musk was one of the main drivers of the rally in dogecoin. But he hasn't said anything about doge in a while, and let fans down when he called it a hustle on SNL.

"Many expected Elon Musk's SNL appearance to send the already-soaring dogecoin even higher," Michael Kamerman, CEO of crypto firm Skilling, said. "It had the opposite effect."

Nonetheless, dogecoin remained more than 7,000% higher over the last year on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko.