Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash
Bitcoin nosedived to a three-week low of $52,148 during Sunday's Asian hours.
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Bitcoin's price fell from near $60,000 to just above $50,000 in a short period.
Bitcoin nosedived to three-week lows early Sunday, puncturing the frenzied speculative bubble built into several alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) in the wake of Coinbase's recent debut on Nasdaq.
- The biggest cryptocurrency by market value dropped from roughly $60,000 to $52,148 in 15 minutes during the Asian session, liquidating almost $4 billion worth of positions in the derivatives market, according to Messari's Ryan Watkins.
- In addition, CNBC last night tweeted as new a month-old report on India preparing to possibly ban cryptocurrencies in the country. That month-old report was based on a Reuters story citing an unnamed government official.
- Several news services treated the CNBC report as new, possibly contributing to the sell-off as fears the partial crypto ban in Turkey announced late last week may be spreading. A message to CNBC has yet to receive a response.
- Other altcoins such as XRP, polkadot, litecoin and bitcoin cash have 17% to 20% in the past 24 hours, while dogecoin is nursing a 6% loss, as per CoinDesk 20 data.
- Payments-focused XRP and meme cryptocurrency dogecoin recently saw huge retail-led price rallies as Coinbase’s hotly anticipated listing on Nasdaq on April 14 created general euphoria around the sector.
- Bitcoin rallied above $60,000 in the days leading up to Coinbase's listing and clocked a record high of $64,801 on April 14.
UPDATE (April 18, 12:43 UTC): Updates prices and adds that a month-old report regarding India may also be spooking the market.
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