Cryptocurrencies crash on regulatory crackdown fears, Bitcoin hits 4-week lows

Bitcoin, the most dominantly traded digital currency, resumed its recent selling spiral and lost almost 18% on the day to a hit a four-week low at 10,892, before recovering some ground to now trade around 11,590 levels. The sell-off puts Bitcoin almost 40% down from its Dec peaks near the $ 18k mark.

The spot tracked the broad-based sell-off across the cryptocurrencies’ space as the regulatory crackdown in South Korea and China is seen gathering steam, with the South’s Finance Minister saying that banning trading in cryptocurrencies was still an option. Additionally, the Chinese efforts to outline a centralized trading of virtual currencies also underscores the crackdown fears.

Mati Greenspan, the Senior Market Analyst at eToro, told CNBC: “The pullback seems to be coming from a lack of buyers in Asia. Japan and South Korea usually dominate this market but over the last few days, the volumes have been dropping steadily. This morning the combined volumes from these two countries dropped below 30 percent."   

All the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are in a sea of red today, with Ethereum down 21%, Ripple down 26.50% and Bitcoin cash losing 21% so far this Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market cap fell dramatically by 20% to $561.92 billion, with Bitcoin’s share increased slightly to 35% of global cryptocurrency trading.