bitcoin news

Bitcoin drops 12% to below $5,000

The world's largest cryptocurrency is now down 22 percent in the past week, falling as much as 12 percent Monday to its lowest level in more than a year.
Other major cryptocurrencies ethereum and XRP dropped 13 and 5 percent respectively.
Bitcoin is now down more than 30 percent since last Thanksgiving, when it gained household-name status and became a common topic around dinner tables.
A photo illustration of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is seen on September 13 2018 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Yu Chun Christopher Wong | S3studio | Getty Images
A photo illustration of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is seen on September 13 2018 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
The world's largest cryptocurrency dropped to its lowest level in more than a year on Monday.

Bitcoin hit a low of $4,883.09, bringing its losses to more than 22 percent in the past seven days and more than 65 percent this year, according to data from CoinDesk.

The digital currency began stumbling last week after months of relative calm. Bitcoin had been trading in the $6,400 range for the majority of October, a break from its volatility earlier this year, as the rest of global markets sold off. The cryptocurrency is now down more than 30 percent since last Thanksgiving.

Its epic rise started right after the American holiday last year, as the cryptocurrency gained its status as a household name and became a common topic around dinner tables. Bitcoin first topped $10,000 at the end of November last year and was worth almost $20,000 ahead of Christmas, mostly driven by retail investors.

The rapid runup also coincided with the introduction of a bitcoin futures market in December. Peak prices lined up with the day the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, introduced bitcoin futures trading on Dec. 17. The Chicago Board Options Exchange, or CBOE, opened a futures market a week earlier. Until futures existed it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bet on the decline of bitcoin prices.

On Monday, both of those bitcoin futures hit their lowest level since they were introduced. Bitcoin CME futures fell as low as $5,015, while bitcoin contracts on the CBOE dropped to $4,990.

Other major cryptocurrencies were mostly lower this week and have fared even worse than bitcoin this year. XRP, the second largest by market capitalization, fell 5 percent Monday, while ether dropped more than 13 percent, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. In the past week roughly $40 billion has been wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization, which was around $172 billion Monday.

Analysts attributed bitcoin's continued sell-off to technical levels and stop orders in the market kicking in after bitcoin fell below $6,000.

"The next logical level of support is at $5,000 but if that doesn't hold, the next logical support level isn't until $3,500," eToro analyst Mati Greenspan said in a note to clients Monday. "With all the falling prices lately, this definitely fits the definition of a buyers market...