Bitcoin extends slide below $4,500, new 2018 low

Send a link to a friend  Share

[November 20, 2018]  LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin tumbled as much as 10 percent on Tuesday to below $4,500 <BTC=BTSP>, bringing the world's best-known cryptocurrency's losses to 30 percent within a week as a selloff in digital currencies intensified across the board.

Other cryptocurrencies also skidded sharply, with Ethereum's ether losing 10 percent <ETH=BTSP> and Ripple's XRP <XRP=BTSP> down 13 percent in a largely sentiment-driven slide.

The latest move lower started this month after a period of relative stability, with prices of bitcoin having hovered around the $6,500 mark for several months.

"The euphoria has died and prices have consolidated with lower lows and lower highs. A lot of people have lost interest," said Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at Forex.com.

Tuesday's falls coincided with broader drops in financial markets. European shares weakened following a big fall on Wall Street.

As well as a general decline in investor confidence in the value of cryptocurrencies, some traders have also blamed the recent drop on fears that a "hard fork" in bitcoin cash, where the smaller coin that split into two separate currencies, could destabilize others.


Bitcoin was trading on Tuesday at $4,354.20, its lowest level on the Bitstamp exchange since October, 2017.

Bitcoin has now lost about 75 percent of its value since peaking in December.

A regulatory clampdown on cryptocurrency trading in early 2018 and a drop in investor interest has sent people scrambling for the exit.

[to top of second column]

Representation of the Bitcoin virtual currency standing on the PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Cryptocurrency advocates say price volatility is to be expected, and that the need for virtual currencies which operate outside the mainstream banking system will outlast any short-term price falls.

The second and third largest cryptocurrencies, XRP and ether, were trading at $0.4451 and $133 respectively on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.

According to industry tracker Coinmarketcap.com, the total market capitalization of virtual currencies is now below $150 billion, down from around $800 billion in January.

(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes, Editing by Saikat Chatterjee and Ed Osmond)

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.

Back to top