Cryptocurrency traders and holders are getting a rude awakening this Monday morning as markets continue to drop. Bitcoin has failed to maintain its $5,600 support and has dropped back down to $5,320 pulling all of the other altcoins down with it. With a plunge of over 10% on the day Ethereum has fallen back below $160, its lowest level since July 2017.
The slide started around six hours ago when ETH, which could now be renamed DETH, dropped through support at $175 and headed downwards, fast. Within a few hours it had broken below $165 and was still falling. According to coinmarketcap.com Ethereum has lost over eleven percent in the past 12 hours.
It is currently trading at its lowest point in 2018 and has not been consistently around this price zone since May 2017 when it shot from $90 to $400 in less than a month before pulling back to around $200.
ETH market cap has taken a hit as a result falling to $16.5 billion with a dump of $1.6 billion in a few painful hours. This is good news for XRP which is now over $2.5 billion ahead, firmly in second spot. XRP has not escaped unscathed however and has also shed 6% on the day falling back to $0.47 at the time of press.
Overall XRP losses have been nowhere near as bad as Ethereum’s which has given it the edge over the past painful week. Also getting hurt at the moment is Litecoin, Cardano, Monero and IOTA, all of which are losing over 10% over the past 24 hours period.
As a result of this latest dump, Tether has finally regained its peg to the dollar and is the only altcoin showing a positive movement right now.
Cryptocurrency markets are again at their lowest levels in 2018. Losing over $37 billion in a week traders and analysts are left wondering where this slide will end and how low things can go. Some have already speculated that Bitcoin could fall back to $4,500 quite easily, but this will leave a lot of the altcoins virtually worthless compared to previous prices.
The crypto winter is still in full effect and another avalanche has just occurred, hodlers will be wondering if they have anything left worth hodling.
