An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
Last year at this time, bitcoin was in the middle of a 217-percent rally that saw its value peak in December near $20,000. Now the largest cryptocurrency can’t stay above $4,000 — losing almost 32 percent in value this week and briefly hitting its lowest level since September 2007 at $3,477.58 on Sunday, according to data from CoinDesk… Other cryptocurrencies also languished. XRP fell 10.4 percent from its 24-hour open, while Ethereum was down 7.5 percent. Litecoin lost 6.7 percent, according to CoinDesk. This week’s sell-off marked the largest one-week decline since April 2013 when bitcoin lost over 44 percent of its value, according to CoinDesk…

Year to date in 2018, bitcoin has declined more than 71 percent… The cryptocurrency jumped from $6,088.35 in mid-November 2017 to $19,326.49 on Dec. 17, 2017… Citing three unnamed sources, Bloomberg News also reported last week that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating if market manipulation caused bitcoin’s 2017 rally.

Earlier this week, one financial advisory firm’s CEO told CNN that they were still bullish on bitcoin. “Savvy investors understand that digital currencies are the future of money and, as such, they will be capitalizing on the lower prices in order to build their portfolios and shore-up their positions.”
But not everyone seems convinced. “I bought $10 of bitcoin a year ago. Just to see how it goes,” posted Austin-based technology reporter Mike Melanson on Twitter, adding “It’s worth $3.45 now. Quite the investment!”

Share on Google+

of this story at Slashdot.

…read more

Source:: Slashdot