The price of bitcoin has crashed spectacularly following weeks of steady gains.
More than $10,000 (£7,120) was wiped from the cryptocurrency’s value in the space of just a few hours on Monday, taking its value below $50,000.
The price correction came after bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $58,000 on Sunday.
Bitcoin’s price fell to below $49,000 on Monday, though its remarkable gains meant it was still trading higher than it was one week ago.
Other major cryptocurrencies also experienced heavy losses, including Ethereum (ether), bitcoin cash, cardano and dogecoin.
The market-wide turmoil saw nearly $300bn wiped off the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap.
The latest dip also caused bitcoin’s market capitalisation to fall below $1 trillion, having passed that milestone for the first time last week.
Ahead of the crash, market analyst Simon Peters predicted that technical indicators suggested that the cryptocurrency is “overbought, implying that we could soon see a retracement”.
In comments shared with The Independent, Mr Peters, who works for the online trading platform eToro, said that such signs would probably lead to some short-term losses.
He said the indicators “will be a warning to many investors that the current price trajectory may be weakening, and that a consolidation or change in price direction is on the horizon”.
