When bitcoins hit the market, cryptocurrencies were just hitting the headlines. With the prices surging since November last year, the sudden drop in the cryptocurrency market (primarily bitcoin) one question comes to mind: has the cryptocurrency bubble finally burst?
Since the sudden rise, bitcoin prices have been on a steady decline since the end of the last year. Plummeting more than 40 percent, leading some investors to believe reality has finally caught up with the bitcoin bubble. The dip in the price started a couple of months ago when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced crypto exchanges will have to obey the same rules as everyone else.
To make matters worse, Coinrail, South Korean cryptocurrency, said it was hacked over the weekend. This hack prompted an extended sale off to Bitcoin at an all time low valuation. Clearly, other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are suffering. People are still reeling from the fact that Tether (another cryptocurrency,) may have manipulated the market in its favour.
Bitfinex was hit by the subpoena a month ago although the news did not reach investors until this week, which could have prompted the mass sell off. Tether is fixed to the US dollar, so $ 1 buys one Tether token. Investors now fear that Tether Limited does not have the reserves of USD needed to support its $2.17billion market cap and that Tether has flooded the market without being propped up by the dollar at all.
Mati Greenspan, a market analyst with eToro told Business Insider: “The claim is — and the claim has been growing lately — that they’re not holding those reserves. Combined, all cryptocurrencies are having a tough time surviving in the market. “Our take on this is that the new investors in the space don’t have enough time to analyze what’s happening,” London Block Exchange analysts said in a report.
The top 10 coins are down anywhere from 10% (Litecoin) to 20% (Moneoro.) Trading at around $8,800, Bitcoin is down more than 12% for the day.