Bitcoin values are tumbling once again, dealing a fresh blow to investors whose hopes were raised when prices began to climb at the beginning of the year.
According to ranking site CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency has fallen from its 2019 peak of $4,100 (£3,195) per coin, recorded last Tuesday, to roughly $3,600 (£2,806) as of 9am UK time today.
Prices began sharply declining on Thursday, with another drop yesterday afternoon leaving the cryptocurrency at its lowest point of 2019.
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The virtual coin’s gains in the New Year have been attributed to a bitcoin “whale” - an investor with a significant share of the digital currency - transferring $10m (£7.85m) worth of the cryptocurrency on Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp, Forbes reports.
This bumped bitcoin’s trading volume to above $5bn (£3.92bn), which in turn increased the value of the virtual currency.
However, experts are at odds over the possible explanations for last week’s declines in the cryptocurrency market.
Mati Greenspan, Mati Greenspan, told the Daily Express that the cryptocurrency market is seeing a “reversal” of the trend that pushed bitcoin above the $4,000 (£3,120) mark at the beginning of the year.
But he added that “there doesn’t seem to be any real reason for this drop, neither technical nor fundamental”.
“At this point, the gains made since the start of the year have now been reversed and we’re back to a neutral 2019,” Greenspan noted.
Josh Rager, founder of blockchain-based business management firm BlockRoot, believes a fall in trading volume may be behind bitcoin’s recent declines.
Speaking to cryptocurrency news site CCN, Rager also predicted that unless values recover within a matter of days, the price of bitcoin is likely to hit around $3,000 (£2,340).
