Cryptocurrency tumble erases over $100bn from digital currency market
Bitcoin and other digital currencies have lost over $100 billion in value since Thursday. This represents more than 20 percent of the entire crypto market.
The total market capitalization or value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation was $402.9 billion at the time this article was written.
All major cryptocurrencies fell from 15 to over 40 percent on Friday, continuing the sell-off the day after India's Finance Ministry announced the country wants to "eliminate" the use of cryptocurrencies in criminal activities.
Bitcoin fell below $8,000 for the first time since November. Ethereum and ripple were down 28 percent and 35 percent respectively.
All but one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap's list were trading lower. DigixDAO was the only exception, with the digital currency trading 40 percent higher. Its growth is reminiscent of the 'pump-and-dump' strategy, which many will be familiar with from the movie, 'The Wolf of Wall Street’. Under the strategy, a specific stock is pushed hard and investors are promised large returns. After prices peak, the owners and early investors quickly sell as many shares as possible, while the others lose.
“Following the ad ban by Facebook, China banned advertising cryptocurrencies as well. Japan has forced local exchanges to warn about risks of cryptocurrency trading. While India announced the toughening of the regulation of the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin can rebound, but on the upside investors will sell it in the short term,” the chief analyst at GLOBAL FX, Sergey Melnikov, said in an email to RT.
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