The cryptocurrency market is awash in a sea of red, and that has crypto traders singing the blues. In the past 24 hours, the total cryptocurrency market cap has plummeted nearly $20 billion. Bitcoin, specifically, has suffered a near 14% loss, bringing its price down to a low not seen in more than a year.
Bitcoin Hits 13-Month Low
Say it ain’t so, Joe. I stumbled out of bed this morning and sat down to check on the market. Instead of seeing signs of recovery, all I saw were ominous splashes of red as far as my mouse could scroll. And it only got worse from there.
Following last week’s dismal performance, during which time Bitcoin price fell by more than $800 overnight, the top cryptocurrency had begun to slowly claw back some of the ground it had lost. After a slow but steady climb to $5650, Bitcoin took another dive, falling by almost 14% to its current average price of around $4,868, according to CryptoCompare. The last time BTC prices were that low was in early October 2017.
Community response has run the gamut. While some are panicking and/or throwing in the towel, others are adopting a wait and see attitude. One thing to keep in mind is that Bitcoin has done this before. Many, many times before. In fact, the total number of times the death knell has been sounded for Bitcoin sits at 317 times and counting. In every instance, the cryptocurrency has recovered.
When Bitcoin Sneezes, Every Altcoin Gets a Cold
Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency affected by the market decline. At press time, every single one of CoinMarketCap’s top 100 cryptocurrencies was in the red, with most of them reporting 24-hour losses of 15% or higher.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH), still suffering from the fallout of this week’s hard fork, is taking a beating and reporting a loss of more than 12%, while Monero (XMR), Tron (TRX), Dash (DASH), and Binance Coin (BNB) report losses of between 14% and 16%.
Even Ripple’s XRP, which made headlines this week after it leaped past a flagging Ethereum to become the #2 cryptocurrency by market cap, is down by more than 4%.
While people are running around trying to decide whether to HODL or FODL, there is some good news to be had. The first crypto ETF is getting ready to launch on Swiss exchange SIX and WorldMarkets now allows users to trade S&P100 stocks – including Facebook, Apple, FedEx, and others – using Bitcoin.
So don’t lose heart. There are so many positive developments in the crypto and blockchain spaces coming our way that the market is bound to right itself – just like it has every other time naysayers are ready to declare it dead.
Do you think that Bitcoin prices can recover from its recent tumble? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, CryptoCompare, CoinMarketCap