Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies saw huge price crashes, with analysts warning that the market has hit “panic mode”.
Ethereum has experienced the biggest drop in value of all the major digital currencies, plunging nearly 20% over the last days to hit its lowest price in almost a year, trading at $262 on Tuesday.
The price of bitcoin has dropped to $6,043, down 7% since this time yesterday.
Analysts have suggested that the latest market movements are due to the liquidation of funds raised through initial coin offerings.
Matthew Newton, eToro
The crypto market seems to have hit panic mode, with prices falling significantly across the board. As we can see in the case of ethereum, investors seem to be increasing liquidations of their ICO holdings, with significant drops in price and increased volumes,” commented Matthew Newton, an analyst at the online trading platform eToro.
This has had a knock-on effect on the rest of the [cryptocurrency] market, with bitcoin also momentarily dropping below $6,000 late last night. With prices hanging in the balance, emotions will be running high among traders. But keeping things in perspective, bitcoin is still range-bound for now between $5,700 to $8,000 in line with how it has traded over the past few months.
Net losses over past 30 days…$ETH: -39.36%$XRP: -40.60%$EOS: -37.76%$LTC: -32.31%$NEO: -54.43%
…$BTC: -3.6%Any questions?#bitcoin pic.twitter.com/6CqztcLtqZ
— A v B ⚡ (@ArminVanBitcoin) August 14, 2018
Eiland Glover
Eiland Glover, CEO of crypto firm Kowala, added:
As crypto markets circle the drain today, with many of the more popular cryptocurrencies falling to levels not seen since November of last year, many of the more cautious investors may be looking to cut their losses and move on from the troubled asset-class. What is often and regrettably overlooked by everyday traders is the financially liberating nature of this technology, which has been nothing short of a miracle for those in equally unstable economies, such as Venezuela and Turkey.
While your average trader on Reddit or in a family office may be taking a hit this month, the true sufferers are those who are seeing their life savings plummet yet have no trustworthy fiat alternative to turn to.
However, prices recovered on Wednesday – Bitcoin jumped 5.4% to $6,324.7 (04:20 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange, Ethereum was 6.2% up to $284.9  on the Bitifinex exchange, Ripple jumped 7.6%, while Litecoin gained 6.9% to $55.946.