Investing.com – Bitcoin fell below $9,000 for the first time since November but recovered some of its losses to trade slightly above multi-month lows as investors fled cryptocurrencies amid growing uncertainty, fear and doubt.
Bitcoin and the wider crypto-industry fell sharply after investors' resolve for the “hodl” – hold on for dear life - came under heavy pressure as nearly $50 billion was wiped off the total crypto-market in a little over 24 hours as the recent wave of hacking scandals, security flaws and "ICO scams" have done little to stem calls for regulation.
The total cryptocurrency market cap at $458 billion, below $478 billion – the level last seen following the crypto “bloodbath” on Jan. 16 – suggests investor demand for cryptocurrency has waned. During the bullish periods of early January, the total cryptocurrency marketcap was more than $800 billion.
Bitcoin fell 8.45% to $9263.9 after falling to a more than two-month low of $8,941 on the bitfinex exchange. While Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell 6.41% to $1033.60.
Ripple XRP, meanwhile, fell 11.51% to $0.97033, well below its all-time high of $3.28 on the poloniex exchange.