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Bitcoin prices are now declining by almost a third in a week.
London: Bitcoin prices continued to fall on Tuesday, dropping by over 7.5% to less than $ 4.500. With today's selloff, Bitcoin prices, the best-known cryptocurrency in the world, are down by almost a third in a week, as the selloffs of digital currencies have intensified across the board. Bitcoin is now trading at $ 4,354.20, its lowest level on the Bitstamp exchange since October 2017. The other cryptocurrencies also fell sharply. Ethereum ether lost 10% and Ripple's XRP fell 13% in a slide driven largely by sentiment.
After months of relative stability, cryptocurrency traders were left staggering by a sudden market crisis in November. Digital assets have lost nearly $ 700 billion in market value since crypto-mania peaked in January, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Trading on futures markets, in which investors can bet against Bitcoin, has skyrocketed.
While the trigger for the last sale is not clear, it coincided with a "fork" of Bitcoin Cash. The move, which divided the original Bitcoin offshoot into two parts, underlined the sometimes chaotic nature of a cryptic community split by internal struggles.
Regulatory concerns also weighed on sentiment. On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced civil sanctions against two cryptocurrency companies that did not register their initial money offerings as securities. And Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the United States Department of Justice is studying whether the last year's epic rally was partly fueled by manipulation, with traders driving Bitcoin with Tether – a popular but controversial digital token.
The open interest combined in Bitcoin futures on stock exchanges managed by CME Group Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. rose to the equivalent of 22,266 Bitcoins on Monday, a historical high. The volume of contracts, which allows institutional investors to benefit from the decline in cryptocurrencies, has jumped to its highest level since July.
