Bitcoin has found itself on the end of another vicious sell-off, adding to the substantial losses this week.
Just check out the 5-minute chart below revealing the wild price price action seen late Thursday night:
After hitting a record high of nearly $US20,000 just a few days ago, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation fell to as low as $13,300 before rebounding back to around $15,000.
It tested this level twice but found buying support on both occasions, as seen in the chart above.
At the lows, it had lost a third of its value from the record high struck earlier this week, falling more than 14% for the session.
Unlike more regulated markets like stocks, bitcoin does not have “circuit breaker” rules that halt trading in significant selloffs to avert full-blown panics. Large falls followed by significant gains are common in the bitcoin price action.
However, after its all-time high at the start of this week, recent days have seen sell-offs pause for short recoveries before the price falls resumed again.
Chris Weston, head of research at IG Markets in Sydney, said the move appeared based on no particular news and looked “herd driven”.
“If people feared missing out on the way up, the idea you can actually lose money is also a new emotion and people are getting out of all cyrptos at the same time,” Weston said. “Wealth preservation time,” he added.
Unusually in the cryptocurrency space, the fall does not seem to be confined to just bitcoin.
As seen in the scoreboard below, it’s not just Bitcoin that is under pressure. Most major cryptocurrencies are getting hammered with the exception of Ripple which has jumped by a remarkable 60%.
Investing.com
According to Alexey Ivanov, CEO and co-founder of Polynom Crypto Capital, a Moscow-based cryptocurrency and blockchain investment fund manager, the surge in Ripple appears to have been driven by strong demand from Asia.
“Asians are going mad for Ripple,” Ivanov said in an interview with Forbes.
Trading volumes in South Korea and Hong Kong were well above normal on Thursday, perhaps driven by an announcement from the company earlier in the week that that a group of 61 banks in Japan, organised by SBI Ripple Asia in Tokyo, will launch a new digital payments systems pilot program with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank of South Korea using the Ripple blockchain network.
“People feel comfortable with its name and the technology behind Ripple,” Trevor Koverko, CEO of Polymath, a blockchain platform for startups looking to launch their own cryptocurrencies, told Forbes.
“A lot of people are beginning to realise how big of an opportunity there is between business and the blockchain…and that’s making Ripple the early winner here.”
Read more at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-prices-right-now-2017-12?r=UK&IR=T
