As Bitcoin’s price remained stable around the $6,500 mark for the past few months cyrpto investors have held out hope that soon the bear market would finally end. Now Bitcoin has hit new lows for the year, its price dropping 12% in the past 24 hours now hovering around $5,500.
The total market cap for Bitcoin has dipped below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017 bringing the total market cap for the crypto industry to $181 billion. As per usual altcoins have followed suit as their price continues to be inextricably intertwined. Ethereum went down near 13%, Ripple almost 10%, and Bitcoin Cash around 9%. There are massive selloffs happening across the top-ten altcoins.
Hello Darkness My Old Friend
What is causing the crypto market’s volatile ways to return? Well, there are no definitive answers, though there certainly are theories abound. Some think it is related to the recent, Bitcoin Cash “hard fork.” There was a software upgrade that causes a new cryptocurrency to form, offering free coins to holders and leaving the old chain fully intact. The Bitcoin Cash community did not have a majority agreement on the code change causing some dissent.
The fork is the only obvious cause that the crypto community can point to, but it doesn’t really justify an almost 15 percent total market loss. A significant drop like this is usually followed by more selloffs due to activated stop loss orders.
While holding crypto investors have already survived great losses, this recent crash indicates that there is a new round of investors folding under the pressure, cutting their losses and walking away. Metal Founder Marshall Hayner speaks to this point, “To put it plainly, today’s dip is likely indicative of the fact that the most recent round of crypto speculators are capitulating.”
Still many hold out hope and continue to make positive price predictions for 2019.
