Bitcoin falls under $10000 in continued Cryptocurrency descent

Bitcoin prices plunged over $3,000 between on the morning of January 16, 2018, hitting the lowest-ever for the month at $10,500.

The price of bitcoin, the world's biggest and best known cryptocurrency, fell to as low as $10,0000 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, the lowest since December 1.

Astonishingly, all of the other top 10 digital currencies by market capitalisation have plummeted even further than bitcoin over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

Less than two weeks ago, the cryptocurrency market reached an all-time high above $830 billion, before fears that South Korea, China, and Russian Federation were all mulling crackdowns on mining and exchanges lead to a global sell off. In addition, the company behind the cryptocurrency BitConnect announced on Tuesday that it was shutting down its lending and exchange services, possibly adding to the panic that had taken over the market.

Investors in South Korea and Japan, the two largest cryptocurrency trading nations, were sitting on the sidelines Tuesday waiting for the regulatory uncertainty to clear before placing further bets, said Greenspan.

Bitcoin led the fall on other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Ripple, over suggestions that Russian Federation and China may crack down on trading.

"The shutdown of virtual currency exchanges is still one of the options (that the government has)".

Still, China's offensive rhetoric against Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the last seven days is likely to have stoked fears amongst investors, causing a major sell-off. Bitcoin, which fell to a low of about $9,500 yesterday, has already gained almost $2,000 to trade near $11,500.

"Whether the animal spirits have already released their grip, remains to be seen and this can not be ascertained from a two-day slump".

The authors said: "Most people are buying bitcoin, not because of a belief in its future as a global currency, but because they expect it to rise in value".

South Korea's technology minister says blockchain will not be affected by the government's recent crackdown on virtual currency trading. For example, Ripple declines by 26%, Monero dropped by 22%, and Ethereum lost 22% of its value.

"The run-up in bitcoin created a mystique of one-way trading which is being shaken, but the pricing requires faith that there will always be demand", Englander wrote in a research note.