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Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, fell about
5% to a three-month low of $18,387.
Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, dropped 3% to a
two-month low of $1,285 and is down more than 10% in the last 24
hours. Most other smaller tokens were deeper in the red.
The Ethereum blockchain, which underpins the ether token, had a
major upgrade over the weekend called the Merge that changes the
way transactions are processed and cuts energy use.
The token's value has fallen amid some speculation that remarks
last week from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Gary Gensler implied the new structure could attract extra
regulation. Trades around the upgrade also were unwound.
"It's speculation as to what might or might not happen," said
Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore crypto platform Stack Funds, on
the regulatory outlook.
"A lot of the hype has come out of the markets since the Merge,"
he said. "It's really been a sell-the-news type of event," he
added, given the nervous global backdrop, and said ether could
test $950 in coming months.
"Looking at the landscape right now, both fundamentally and
technically, it's not looking great. There's no immediate
bullish catalyst that we can see that's going to prop up these
markets and bring in a whole lot of new money and liquidity."
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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