Bitcoin crashes to lowest this year, losses top 25 per cent in a week
- The digital currency has sunk as far as US$4,300; traders and market makers blame it on heavy selling at leveraged exchanges in Asia
Bitcoin slumped on Tuesday to its lowest this year, tumbling as much as 10 per cent to breach US$4,300 and taking losses in the world’s best-known digital coin to 25 per cent within a week.
Other smaller coins also skidded sharply as a broader cryptocurrency sell-off, said by traders and market makers to be rooted in heavy selling at leveraged Asian exchanges, gathered steam.
The fall followed a sudden plunge last week that shook bitcoin out of a period of relative stability, where prices had hovered around the US$6,500 mark for several months.
Bitcoin sunk as far as US$4,327, its lowest since October 2017. By mid-afternoon, it was trading around US$4,750 on the Bitstamp exchange.
“We’d been waiting for a break-out,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro. “When you have the price moving so steadily you had lots of stop-loss orders building up – and now you are seeing them being liquidated.”
Ripple’s XRP and Ethereum’s ether, the second and third-largest coins, fell as much as 14 and 16 per cent respectively before clawing back losses in US trading hours.