Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were lower on Thursday as Bitcoin extended its losses after a sharp decline on Wednesday.
Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD) declined 12.04% to a one-year low of $5,590 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 9:16 AM ET (14:16 GMT), after falling 12% on Wednesday.
"The market had been entering a wedge, with the volatility so low," Charlie Hayter, founder of industry website Cryptocompare, told Reuters.
"What you are seeing low is a breakout on the downside. Sometimes when things happen, it takes a while for the true reason to become clear - an exchange trade or regulatory action."
Meanwhile, some analysts speculated that new versions of Bitcoin cash may have caused the decline, as traders are sucked away from the original coin. The coin split into two versions on Thursday, Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV.
Bitcoin cash was created after a hard fork from Bitcoin. Forks are common in the crypto space and usually occur when a code in the digital currencies change.
BCH/USD slumped 13.20% to $427.88.
Cryptocurrencies overall were sharply lower with the total coin market capitalization at $179 billion at the time of writing, compared to $205 billion on Wednesday.
Ethereum,or Ether, decreased 12.79% to $177.23 and Litecoin was at $43.116, down 12.61%, while XRP fell 10.34% to $0.45251.