Cryptocurrency prices have taken a tumble once again over the past week, bringing the market to its lowest point of the year.
According to ranking website CoinMarketCap, the value of bitcoin rival Ethereum has also plummeted, from $210 (£164) per coin last week to around $155 (£121).
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The latest drops are being blamed on a “hard fork” - a change whereby the digital asset will effectively divide in two to form a new cryptocurrency - in bitcoin and its sister token bitcoin cash, according to Forbes.
Bitcoin ABC and bitcoin SV were created last week in a bid to improve on bitcoin’s existing technology, which has undergone few upgrades since being created nearly ten years ago.
The move has sparked mass sell-offs that have knocked billions off the value of bitcoin and other digital currencies including Ethereum and banking-focused coin Ripple.
The crisis comes days after Changpeng Zhao, chief executive of cryptocurrency trading platform Binance, told US broadcaster CNBC that he expected bitcoin to enter another “bull run” similar to that which saw the December high.
“It’s really hard to predict” what would trigger the next price boom but “it will happen sooner or later”, Zhao said.
-
'Enforcement of rulings remains spotty at best'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Book reviews: 'King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution' and 'Gwyneth: The Biography'Feature How the Iranian Revolution began and Gwyneth Paltrow's life in the spotlight
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Bitcoin braces for a quantum computing onslaughtIN THE SPOTLIGHT The cryptocurrency community is starting to worry over a new generation of super-powered computers that could turn the digital monetary world on its head.
-
The noise of Bitcoin mining is driving Americans crazyUnder the Radar Constant hum of fans that cool data-centre computers is turning residents against Trump's pro-cryptocurrency agenda
-
What Trump's win could mean for Big TechTalking Points The tech industry is bracing itself for Trump's second administration
-
Network states: the tech broligarchy who want to create new countriesUnder The Radar Communities would form online around a shared set of 'values' and acquire physical territory, becoming nations with their own laws
-
Paraguay's dangerous dalliance with cryptocurrencyUnder The Radar Overheating Paraguayans are pushing back over power outages caused by illegal miners
-
2023: the year of crypto instabilityThe Explainer Crypto reached peaks — and valleys — throughout 2023
-
Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty: where does crypto go from here?Today's Big Question Conviction of the 'tousle-haired mogul' confirms sector's 'Wild West' and 'rogue' image, say experts
-
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in the BahamasSpeed Read
