Bitcoin, Ethereum collapses while the encrypted market suffers

by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin fell to a minimum of eight weeks Tuesday, while Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value, fell to more than a year while their bearish trend continued, undermined by a strong US dollar and global tensions related to Turkey.

The Turkish crisis has dampened risk appetite in recent sessions, encouraging a sell-off in emerging market currencies and stocks and pushing inflows into safe haven assets such as the US dollar and the US Treasury.

The original virtual currency fell to $ 5.80 on Bitstamp, the lowest since the end of June. It was down 3.5% to $ 6,036.74. So far in 2018, the bitcoin has dropped by almost 57 percent, after exceeding 1,300 percent last year.

Ethereum fell nearly 9% to $ 258.45 on Bitstamp, dropping to a minimum of over a year of $ 250.54. According to the crypto data tracker coinmarketcap.com, the third largest cryptocurrency, Ripple, fell 13.4% to 25 cents of dollars.

"What started early this week as a route in the Turkish lira has quickly spread to all markets and now it seems that it is also affecting the criptos," said Mati Greenspan, market analyst at eToro, based in Israel.

The total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies has fallen to $ 191.4 billion, the lowest since the beginning of November last year, data from coinmarketcap.com showed.

Bitcoin has held up pretty well between sales in the cryptocurrency market, analysts said. As a percentage of market capitalization, the bitcoin share rose to 54.5%, suggesting that investors were willing to hold the most widely held and well capitalized digital currencies.

During the exciting days of the cryptocurrency boom at the end of 2017 and January of this year, the bitcoin share has fallen to 32%

The cryptocurrency market has been stung by several decisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US on the funds exchanged.

At the end of last month, the SEC was firm to decide to block the ETF application of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of Crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co LLC.

At the beginning of this month, the SEC delayed a decision on a bitcoin ETF proposed by the money management company VanEck and the SolidX cryptography startup.

"I believe we are seeing the continuation of the cryptocurrency bear market, which is not the first or last cyclical asset to behave this way," said Clement Thibault, Investing.com senior analyst.

forward, I do not think we are still at the end of the cycle and I can see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to fall before a significant return return. "

(Report by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Dan Grebler)