This year hasn’t been a particularly great year for cryptocurrencies. The Ripple, Ethereum, and Bitcoin prices were stable for the last few weeks, but they have become incredibly volatile this week. Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies witnessed a sudden decline in their prices on Thursday, knocking billions of dollars off their value. The decline on Thursday pushed Bitcoin prices closer to its lowest level this year, which was around $5,800 in July. And the prices fell again on Friday.
nir_design / Pixabay
Cryptos nosedive again on Friday
After having fallen 4.26% on Thursday to $6,289, Bitcoin declined further on Friday morning to trade at around $6,278. Bitcoin had earlier been trading at around $6,500 for the last several weeks. Cryptocurrencies have lost more than $600 billion in their value since the market peaked in January this year. Bitcoin prices peaked in late 2017 to almost $20,000. The digital currency has seen intense volatility and losses since then.
According to CoinMarketCap.com, the total market value of virtual currencies has declined by nearly $7 billion in the last 24 hours. Early on Friday, Ripple (XRP) plummeted 7.9% compared to Thursday to trade at around 39.13 cents. The decline came after a massive sell-off on Thursday. Ethereum was also in the red, falling 7.4% to $191. Amid the bloodbath, cryptocurrencies are showing no signs of recovery. Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Stellar, and EOS have also fallen sharply.
Three of the most popular cryptocurrencies -Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple – are all trading far below their record high levels. Tom Lee of Fundstrat told CNBC he was surprised people believe virtual currencies would never reach their all-time highs again. Lee pointed out that there are only about 50 million cryptocurrency wallets today. By comparison, there are more than four billion Visa cards. There is still massive growth opportunity ahead of cryptocurrencies, believes Lee.
