From 7th of January to 6th of February, over $550 billion have been lost in value, as major altcoins and Bitcoin took huge hits to their prices and ultimately, to their market capitalizations.
On January 7th, the total market cap of the cryptocurrency market was around $836 billion, close to the market cap of Apple. Now, the market cap of cryptos is around $270 billion, which is a remarkable loss of approximately $550 billion in just 30 days.
The “people’s currency”, Bitcoin, is constantly losing value, and plunging below $6,000 for the first time since mid-November on Monday, according to the website CoinDesk. Considering the fact that it hit $20,000 in December, the loss now seems gigantic. Since December, the market value of Bitcoin has fallen $ $233.5 billion.
While investors are seriously worried about the downfall of the market, it is a fact that the overall growth of the altcoins is still positive. However, according to a quote from CNBC this morning, Ethereum, which hit an all-time high of $1,432.88 on January 13, traded around $577 on Tuesday, marking a near 60 percent decline in a few weeks, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.
Third-largest cryptocurrency ripple is off more than 80 percent from its record high of $3.81 it hit earlier this month. Ripple and Ethereum are both seeing better days than they did one year ago.
The major reasons for that fall are several. First, India announced its intentions to ban cryptocurrencies, since they fear criminal activities being funded through the use of cryptos. Second, China, probably the biggest player on the crypto market, is now trying to ban all cryptocurrency exchanges, essentially trying to completely stop the market from functioning.
JPMorgan, Lloyds Banking Group and others have come hard at cryptocurrency investors, banning altcoin purchases with credit/debit cards.