The hugely-popularised crypto-currency has been steadily sliding since the beginning of 2018.
Bitcoin fell 9% on Friday, meaning that the world’s best-known cryptocurrency has fallen more than 30% this week alone and is headed for its worst weekly performance since April 2013.
Set up in 2008, Bitcoin came to greater prominence during 2017 after it rose in value by over 1,700% between January and December. On Friday, 15 December, it hit another record high when it was valued at $17,800, before it was reportedly being traded for $19,000 the following Monday, 19 December.
2018, however, is not the year of the Bitcoin – as the cryptocurrency has hit unfathomable lows. Late on Wednesday, 31 January, bitcoin was at $9,999.26, according to CoinDesk.
On Friday, 2 February, the cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $8,155 at 9.15am GMT on the Luxembourg-based bitstamp exchange following a broader rout in the market.
The plunge is noteworthy, even by Bitcoin’s standards.
Several other large cryptocurrencies have reportedly lost more than 20% of their value in the last 24 hours of trading, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Bitcoin is now down to less than half of its December peak of almost $20,000. This follows the currency’s sensational gain of more than 1,000% last year.
The news has sent investors scrambling to sell their stocks.
Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Macro Associates spoke to Bloomberg Television about how Bitcoin is the “biggest bubble in human history” and this “mother of all bubbles” is finally crashing.
Meanwhile, South Korea has since undertaken new legislation aimed at calming down its red-hot bitcoin market.
