Bitcoin’s spot price was slumping on Tuesday, touching a six-week low under $12,000, as the biggest cryptocurrencies came under pressure.
The bitcoin spot price BTCUSD, -15.95% BTCUSD, -15.95% recently was down 16% to $11,458, according to CoinDesk data. That is a level last seen in early December, and it’s far below a mid-December peak above $19,000.
The top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were all showing big drops, according to CoinMarketCap.com data. No. 2 virtual currency Ethereum fell 19%, Ripple slumped 28%, and bitcoin cash shed 21%, with Neo showing the smallest fall among the top ten, losing 10%.
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The selloff follows a Bloomberg report on Monday that said China is escalating its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading. It also comes after crypto exchange Kraken was down for longer than expected to upgrade its trading platform. Kraken apologized on Saturday “for the uncertainty our downtime has cause,” saying it was back online.
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