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Cryptocurrency values plummeted to a minimum of nine months following a severe fall in Ethereum over the weekend.
The price of the bitcoin rival fell 10% to about $ 196 (£ 152) per currency this morning, resulting in the combined value of all digital currencies dropping $ 640 billion (£ 495 billion) from the market's peak in January, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Meanwhile, bitcoin fell to 6,268 (£ 4,845) by currency at the start of today, marking a decline of 3.7% over yesterday's value, the paper says.
Marketwide's price cuts are presumed to have been triggered by the news that the US Securities and Exchange Commission suspends the trade in two cryptocurrency tracking products: Bitcoin Tracker One and Ether Tracker .
According to Reuters, the SEC has temporarily suspended trade on the two investment instruments because of "market confusion about whether the products are exchange-traded funds (ETFs)" – a form of investment fund traded on a stock exchange.
" The SEC has taken a strict stance against the fact that ETFs monitoring bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies arrive on the market, ," explains the news site.
The last drop in cryptocurrency prices is also attributed to rumors that investment giant Goldman Sachs is demolishing plans to introduce a digital currency window.
Will prices go up again?
Ethereum, along with other cryptocurrencies, is unlikely to return to peak prices seen in late 2017 and early 2018, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Speaking to Bloomberg, the Russian programmer said: "The blockchain space is coming to the point where there is a ceiling in sight."
Buterin explained that the period explosive growth in the sphere is probably coming to an end because the sector's level of surface awareness has grown significantly, and is likely to stabilize.
"If you talk to the average educated person at this point, they probably heard about blockchain at least once," he said. "There is still an opportunity for the further growth of 1,000 times of anything in space."
