Monday saw a major upgrade in the Bitcoin network - leading to a massive upturn in the market, but now the growth has been reversed with the coin's value taking a major plunge.
Several other currencies including Ethereum (ether), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ada) have all seen a drop in value in the last day, as have Meme Coins, Dogecoin and Shib Inu.
Currencies have experienced dips of between five and ten percent.
Why has bitcoin dropped?
Experts say the exact cause of the crash is yet to be fully understood and it could have been caused by multiple factors.
One reason could be that the Chinese government have given renewed energy into decreasing bitcoin mining.
Another factor at play could be a recent rejection of a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
A third could be investors skimming profits from their holdings.
Speaking to the Independent, Nicholas Cawley, an analyst at foreign exchange firm DailyFX, said: “Bitcoin’s sell-off has taken it back to levels last seen 10 days ago, hardly a plunge, more a correction of the multi-month rally.
“The one area of concern is that the move lower has seen bitcoin fall out of its multi-week ascending channel, turning the technical outlook from positive to neutral.
“An interesting area of support is around $59,500 – if this holds then we may well see bitcoin reclaim its recent losses, and look at printing a new all-time high, over the coming weeks.”
It remains to be seen, given the volatile nature of the Bitcoin market, whether the latest dip is a reversal of the 2020/21 bull market or a levelling out of the current all times highs being experienced by the currency.
How far has bitcoin crashed?
The value of the cryptocurrency has fallen by 6 percent in the last 24 hours.
The value of a coin had fallen below £43,500 ($61,000) as of Tuesday morning.
Bitcoin losses currently sit at more than 10%.
Overall the crypto market is thought to have fallen by some £148 billion ($200 billion) to around £1.93 billion ($2.6trillion).
It remains to be seen here the bottom of the dip is, as levels now the lowest they have been since late October.
