LONDON – All of the 10 biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation are plunging on Tuesday morning, with most suffering double-digit percentage losses.
Bitcoin fell as much as 14% in early trade, breaking through both $US13,000 and $US12,000 levels, but has recovered slightly since then. The decline appears to have spooked the market, with other coins selling off in at the same time.
Here’s the scoreboard as of 8.45 a.m. GMT (3.45 a.m. ET) and
per Markets Insider:
- Bitcoin is down 11.3% against the dollar to $12,082.79;
- Ethereum is down 11% against the dollar to $US1,131.61;
- Ripple is down 15.8% to $US1.39;
- Bitcoin Cash is down 6% to $US199.45 ;
- Cardano is down 14.1% to $US0.69;
- Litecoin is down 10.3% to $US207.83;
- Neo is down 14.3% to $US160.37;
- Nem is down 13% to $US1.27;
- Stellar is down 16.4% to $US0.51;
- IOTA is down 11.8% to $US3.21.
Cryptocurrencies have experienced a volatile start to 2018 after an huge rally last year.
Increased regulatory scrutiny from South Korea has dampened sentiment in the sector. Mati Greenspan, an analyst at trading platform eToro, said declining volumes from Japan and South Korea appeared to be behind Tuesday morning’s sell-off.
Crypto prices in these markets typically carry a premium, which pushes up average prices globally.
“The volumes have been declining steadily both in Japan and South Korea over the last few days,” Greenspan told Business Insider. “This morning, the combined volume from these two top cryptotrading countries dropped below 30%. Looks like they’re tired of overpaying for cryptos and waiting for the market to even out.”
