The Slippening continued on Friday as two more Chinese bitcoin exchanges announced they will shutter their trading services. The bitcoin price crashed beneath $3,000 to reach a 6-week low, while the ethereum price fell below the $200 threshold for the first time since July.
Altogether, the markets shed another $20 billion, reducing the total cryptocurrency market cap below to just $99 billion. Since setting an all-time high on September 2, the crypto market cap has fallen by $80 billion.
The impetus for this continued downward momentum is the shaky Chinese regulatory environment. Following more than a week of unconfirmed reports that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) would ban bitcoin exchanges, BTCC–the world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange–announced yesterday it will suspend trading on September 30. This announcement was followed today by closure announcements from Yunbi and ViaBTC, and a new report from Chinese media service Caixin says that Huobi and OKCoin will shutter their platforms in October.
Bitcoin Price Dips Below $3,000
The bitcoin price fell another 17% on Friday, bringing its 7-day decline to 36%. Significantly, the bitcoin price has fallen below the $3,000 threshold for the first time since early August. At present, the global average bitcoin price is $2,970, which translates into a market cap of $49.2 billion.
Bitcoin is still trading slightly above that mark on a few exchanges, but BTC/CNY pairs are placing severe downward pressure on the global average. OKCoin, for instance, currently has bitcoin trading at just $2,600.
Ethereum Price Falls to July Levels
Although bitcoin’s decline has been steep, ethereum’s has been even more precipitous. Since last week, the ethereum price has fallen 40%. In the past day alone, the ethereum price has shed more than $50 to post a 20% decline. The ethereum price is now just $198, which is its lowest mark since late July. Ethereum’s market cap has now dropped below $20 billion and currently sits at $18.8 billion.
Altcoin Massacre Continues
The market’s bearish turn continued to pummel altcoins on Friday, with 92 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies posting 24-hour declines of 10% or greater. Even more startling is the fact that 26 of those cryptocurrencies fell at least 30%. This massacre pushed bitcoin’s dominant market share back across 50% for the first time since August 17.
The bitcoin cash price plunged 28% to $316, dropping it to 4th place on the market cap charts. Ripple, which declined “just” 17%, now controls the 3rd spot with a market cap of $5.9 billion.
Litecoin posted the worst performance in the top 10, losing 32% of its total valuation in just 24 hours. The litecoin price–which surpassed $90 less than two weeks ago–has now been reduced to $34.
The Dash price fell 19% to $221, while NEM’s 20% decline reduced its price to $0.163. Monero and IOTA also posted significant declines; they fell 27% and 25% respectively.
Tenth-ranked ethereum classic joined litecoin at the head of the retreat, plummeting 30% to $8. Ethereum classic’s market cap is now just $767 million, reducing the total number of cryptocurrencies with $1 billion market caps to nine.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
