bitcoin

Bitcoin plunges nearly 15%, makes fresh 2018 low


Bitcoin prices tumbled on Wednesday, crashing through the psychologically important $6,000 level and making a new low for 2018.

A single bitcoin














BTCUSD, -0.09%












 was last fetching $5,466.59, down 13.6% since Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange. Bitcoin reached a session low of $5,405.97.

“After the recent attempt to clear $6,500 bitcoin has lost all its momentum and now we are seeing some very bearish signals,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets U.K. Aslam added that a break of the 2018 low, would open up a move towards the $5200 to $5300 level.



Bitcoin fall

The fall wiped $15 billion off the market cap of bitcoin, according to data from CoinMarketCap and the broad-based selloff shed more than $30 billion off the total value of all cryptocurrencies.

Read: A central bank digital currency could be around the corner, if you believe the IMF

Altcoins crash to multimoth lows

Altcoins, or cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, were showing significant losses in Wednesday trading too. One day out from the scheduled hard fork, Bitcoin Cash














BCHUSD, +4.57%












 shed 19.4% to $412.30.

Read: What you need to know about the Bitcoin Cash ‘hard fork’

Elsewhere, Ether,














ETHUSD, +0.75%












was off 16.8% at $169.44, Litecoin














LTCUSD, +2.09%












had lost 17.1% at $40.58 and XRP,














XRPUSD, +2.13%












the coin that runs on the Ripple protocol, was off 16.1% at 42 cents.

Bitcoin futures went into free fall on Wednesday, which saw the CME contract hit both its 7% and 13% limit down levels. By the end of the session the CME November contract














BTCX8, +2.61%












was down 14.1% at $5,450 and the Cboe Global Markets November contract














XBTX8, -10.80%












finished the day 14% lower at $5,395.

Read: Bitcoin futures tumble 13%, trigger trading limit

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