The total market value of all cryptocurrencies has lost about $100 billion over the past 48 hours, after the world’s top digital asset, bitcoin, slumped around 10 percent as crypto fever cooled off.
Bitcoin was trading at $31,375 per token at 14:40 GMT, having lost nearly 10 percent day to day, according to Coinmarketcap.com. The world’s number-one cryptocurrency has dropped almost 18 percent over the past week.
Bitcoin has seen a wild rally in recent weeks, briefly hitting $41,940 earlier this month before its recent sharp drop.
The second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, ether, was also down around 10 percent over the past 48 hours. It was trading at $1,238.49, after hitting an all-time high of $1,439 on Tuesday.
Also on rt.com Cryptocurrency market value hits record $1 trillion as bitcoin reaches new eye-popping highsThe plunge in major digital assets evoked an enormous drop in the market value of all cryptocurrencies from about $1.06 trillion to under $920 billion.
Despite the latest drop, bitcoin has still been up over 150 percent in the past three months. Experts tied its rally to a number of factors, including growing interest from large institutional investors. Bitcoin’s recent price surge was also boosted by massive investor outflow from gold, which is commonly the preferred inflation hedge for traders.
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