Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies took a nosedive on Thursday morning in Asia, after a major sell-off in the previous session. Bitcoin dropped below a one-year low of $6,000, while some analysts attributed the plunge to spillover in U.S. stock markets.
Bitcoin slid 12.91% to $5,697 at 11:02PM ET (03:02 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum plummeted 16.73% to $180.05 on the Bitifinex exchange.
XRP fell 13.72% to $0.45324 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin also lost 16.42% to $43.394 on the Bitifinex exchange.
The major sell-off starting from Wednesday pulled the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies down below $200 billion, to $184 billion at the time of reporting, down more than 70% since the start of 2018, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
As bitcoin drops below $6,000, it is possible for stop-loss orders to go into effect. Investors are “trying to play the breakout,” crypto trader eToro’s Senior Market Analyst Mati Greenspan told CNBC.
“Another contributing factor is the sell-off in tech stocks, which could be having a spillover effect into crypto markets,” he said.
Other analysts did not jump to conclusions.
“What you are seeing…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,” Charlie Hayter, founder of industry website Cryptocompare, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s government is calling for proper cryptocurrency regulations before introducing its Harapan Coin, the digital tokens that are expected to be the world’s first political fundraising platform.
“The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency may open us up to a number of issues and we need to wait for guidelines from Bank Negara Malaysia in regard [to] cryptocurrency,” Fahmi Fadzil, a parliament member, told The Star.
Also in Asia, Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform KuCoin raised $20 million in a series A round of financing on Thursday, according to the Strait Times.