Major cryptocurrencies rushed early Tuesday, as investors drew some strength from a rally that drove digital assets to staggering prices.
The price of bitcoin fell about 14 percent to $ 46,605.79, after falling to $ 44,964.49 overnight, according to data from CoinDesk, which recorded its biggest daily decline in a month.
Dogecoin, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency that has become an online cult favorite, has recently fallen more than 20% to about 4.4 cents. And Ether, second only to Bitcoin in terms of market value, sank nearly 19 percent to $ 1,455.56.
According to Coinmarketcap.com, the sale resulted in a reduction in the total market value of cryptocurrencies by about 16 percent, to nearly $ 1.4 trillion.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of the most prominent sponsors of cryptography, appeared to kick off the weekend with a tweet stating that bitcoin and Ether prices “look high” despite their carmaker Electric has invested $ 1.5 billion in the old currency.
Markets were also frightened by skeptical comments Monday from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who considered bitcoin to be “extremely inefficient” and “highly speculative.”
“People need to be careful that it can be extremely volatile and I am concerned about the potential losses that investors may suffer,” Yellen said at a conference.
Tuesday’s fall underscored the volatility of cryptocurrencies just a week after Bitcoin first surpassed $ 50,000.
Cryptography prices have risen in recent months as a growing number of institutional investors and major companies such as Tesla and Mastercard began to treat digital currencies as more common investment assets.
But skeptics have argued that such wild price changes could be an obstacle to wider adoption of cryptocurrencies.
“The kind of rallies we’ve seen are unsustainable and only invite setbacks like this,” Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at OANDA, told Reuters.
With mail cables