Bitcoin Crashes to $4,294 as Cryptocurrencies Suffer Worst Hit of 2018

Bitcoin has crashed to its lowest point in 2018 as price volatility returns to the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin crashed to $4,294 by 11 PM last night, its lowest since October 2017. It has since risen to $4,568 as of the time of writing. This means Bitcoin has lost 25% of its value over the last seven days alone. Before now, the digital currency had maintained a relatively stable price as its value had stabilized around $6,000 since May 2018.

Bitcoin is down over 75% from its all-time high.

It is still the best performing asset class in the last 5 years.

It has dwarfed stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities since inception too.

Ignore the noise, trust the code.

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) November 21, 2018

Importantly, Bitcoin Cash, which was trading at $590 on November 8, 2018, lost nearly 50% of its value. The currency presently trades at $265.41.

Other cryptocurrencies also took a haircut recently. Ethereum, which had once looked like the only stable member of the cryptocurrency family continued its downward trail. Ethereum crashed $135 at the time of writing.

Ripple’s XRP currency, the second largest cryptocurrency, also dropped 14% during the selloff.

Litecoin dropped to $33 at the time of writing. The currency had been trading at $51 just 11 days ago, and had a value of $356 way back in December, 2017.

There’s no clear reason why cryptocurrency prices dipped so low recently. However, some analysts believe that a recent change in the underlying structure of Bitcoin Cash may have sparked the recent selloff. Last week Bitcoin Cash was split into two currencies following a “hard fork” of its architecture. This prompted a panic and, perhaps, pushed speculators into selling their assets.

Lets get this 1k $BTC touch over and done with already. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/4oERTwYCAx

— Daniel📈 (@CCPool_Daniel) November 21, 2018

This is not an unusual explanation though. Cryptocurrency prices are sensitive to such news. Last year the price of cryptocurrency assets rose when a planned hard fork was abandoned.

Nevertheless, the recent dip in cryptocurrency values coincides with a significant decline of US stocks.

Around $900 bn lost and they say Bitcoin is bubble… pic.twitter.com/G55r56TQLS

— Coinmonks (@coinmonks) November 21, 2018

Several assets, from oil, stocks, and bonds dipped in one of the toughest days of trading in the last couple of years in the US. Shares of some of the biggest tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Alphabet dropped yesterday for the second day.

But some investors are confident the Cryptocurrency market will rise again. And some even expect bull runs next year.