The price of Bitcoin collapsed under $10,500 on Coinbase over the last 24 hours, as a dramatic sell-off crushed the broader cryptocurrency sector. Bitcoin settled near $13,000 around noon EST, after falling more than $4,000 in just hours.
But the Bitcoin price crash may not be over yet. Noted Bitcoin bull and billionaire investor Mike Novogratz told Bloomberg that Bitcoin's decline could deepen to $8,000. Given market conditions, the money manager has shelved his plans to create a crypto hedge fund.
"We didn't like market conditions and we wanted to re-evaluate what we're doing," Novogratz told Bloomberg in an interview. "I look pretty smart pressing the pause button right now."
The Bitcoin price declined by roughly one-third over the 24-hour period as the sell-off entered its fourth day in a row.
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Coinbase, once again, faced an outage this morning. The firm announced at 11:11 a.m. EST that "all buys and sellers have been temporarily disabled." The freeze came at the same time that the price of Bitcoin was plunging across exchanges. The price fell to as low as $10,400 on Coinbase, down 44% from its all-time record on Sunday.
Below is a recap of the top cryptocurrency prices at 12:30 p.m. EST.
- Bitcoin: $13,306.90, -14.96%
- Ethereum: $656.37, -18.98%
- Bitcoin Cash: $2,666.32, -17.19%
- Ripple: $0.99, -9.52%
- Litecoin: $250.76, -18.02%
Now that we know all of today's price movements, here's what has been moving these cryptocurrencies...
Cryptocurrency Markets Today
On Friday, the market capitalization of the global cryptocurrency sector plunged to $499.72 billion. Over the last 24 hours, the entire industry shaved more than $100 billion from its total value.
Bitcoin now comprises 45.0% of the global cryptocurrency market. Only four of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have shown gains over the last 24 hours. In 2017, this is the first time that the entire cryptocurrency sector has experienced a pullback of this magnitude.
Top performers from the largest 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization included Agoras Tokens (up 79.19%), Burst (up 67.19%), Santiment Network (up 6.42%), and Bitcoin Dark (up 1.12%)
The worst performers from the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization included IOTA (down 36.41%), BitBay (down 32.31%), Siacoin (down 32.31%), ReddCoin (down 31.67%), Storj (down 30.52%), and Nav Coin (down 29.54%).
Bitcoin Retreats Under $10,500
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin hit $222.98 billion Friday afternoon. That's a slight improvement from the nadir of the sell-off over the last 24 hours. Some analysts are now warning that Bitcoin's dramatic decline in recent days could fuel a broader sell-off in the global markets. In an interview with CNBC Friday, Ron William of RW Market Advisory suggested that Bitcoin could create a "broader contagion story" that could ripple into the stock market.
"Price is extremely irrational. And now it is looking - if we continue lower - that this could be a broader contagion story for the other markets," William said.
Crypto Stocks Slump
William may be right about a sell-off in stocks... in the cryptocurrency space. Over the last week, companies that have billed themselves as blockchain-focused saw their stocks surge. One firm - Long Island Iced Tea changed its name to Long Island Blockchain and watched its stock surge more than triple digits. But today, firms with this exposure are cratering. MGT Capital Investments Inc. (OTCMKTS: MGTI), Long Island Iced Tea Corp. (Nasdaq: LTEA), Riot Blockchain Inc. (Nasdaq: RIOT), and Siebert Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: SIEB) all fell by more than 12% Friday.
Bitcoin Cash Collapses
Bitcoin Cash was the biggest loser among the top-tier cryptocurrencies on Friday. The price fell as much as 42% in a dramatic sell-off. Trading of BCH has been extremely volatile in recent days. Earlier this week, Coinbase added BCH to its platform, but suspended trading due to significant traffic and rumors of insider trading around the cryptocurrency. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong released a statement about suspicious price movement on Thursday.
"I take the confidentiality of material non-public information very seriously as CEO," he wrote. "Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies - directly or indirectly - I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action."
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About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.