{"id":245195,"date":"2018-01-18T10:02:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=245195"},"modified":"2018-01-18T10:05:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T08:05:20","slug":"what-bitcoin-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/245195-what-bitcoin-crash.html","title":{"rendered":"What Bitcoin crash?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many Bitcoin investors are panicking over the currency’s recent “crash”, with media outlets and analysts speculating as to whether the Bitcoin “bubble” has popped.<\/p>\n

Over the period of 14-17 January 2018, Bitcoin’s value plummeted from $14,000 to under $10,000, before recovering slightly.<\/p>\n

This sharp drop in value caused widespread panic among investors, with many labelling the price movement “Bitcoin’s crash”.<\/p>\n

The recent price drop also followed Bitcoin declining in value from around the $20,000 mark at the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

Before asserting that Bitcoin has crashed, however, it is important to take note of the cryptocurrency market as a whole and Bitcoin’s relative performance.<\/p>\n

Market volatility<\/h3>\n

Bitcoin’s recent price drop did not occur in isolation, and almost every major cryptocurrency has experienced large value drops during the week.<\/p>\n

Cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Monero, Ripple, and Litecoin all plummeted in value – with most falling more than Bitcoin before recovering.<\/p>\n

The top 10 cryptocurrencies on the market all fell just as much – or even more than – Bitcoin in value, signifying that it is not Bitcoin which lost value, but the entire cryptocurrency market.<\/p>\n

There was a large outflow of money from the cryptocurrency market in recent days, with the global cryptocurrency market cap dropping from over $700 billion to $400 billion.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin is the biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, but it only accounts for a third of the cryptocurrency market – and is affected by market-wide events.<\/p>\n

The cryptocurrency market is volatile, and while Bitcoin’s value fell by around 30% this week, the dip is a relatively minor occurrence compared to its long-term trend.<\/p>\n

A look at CoinMarketCap<\/strong><\/a> shows that coins like Ethereum and Ripple were also hit by big drops this week.<\/p>\n

\"Crypto<\/a>

Global market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies, 18 Dec – 18 Jan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Long-term value<\/h3>\n

While the drop in Bitcoin’s price has made many new crypto investors uneasy, a look at Bitcoin’s year-to-date growth put matters into perspective.<\/p>\n

On 18 January 2017, Bitcoin was trading at $901. On 18 January 2018, the day after the “Bitcoin crash”, the currency was trading at $11,000.<\/p>\n

This is a year-on-year growth of almost 12,000%.<\/p>\n

Looking at the cryptocurrency’s value in these terms shows that it has not crashed, and its recent drop in value is relatively small compared to its overall movement.<\/p>\n

The event does portray an outpouring of funds from the cryptocurrency market, however, which may be due to a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

Analysts have speculated<\/strong><\/a> that the recent drop could be attributed to a crackdown by regulatory authorities, technical triggers, or problems at exchanges.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, Bitcoin remains relatively strong, suffering less from the major dip than other coins.<\/p>\n

Cryptocurrency remains a volatile and unregulated market, though, and buyers must not invest more than they are willing to, or can afford to, lose.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin<\/a>

Bitcoin price, Jan 2017 – Jan 2018<\/p><\/div>\n

This is an opinion piece, and is not intended as investment advice. Always research a cryptocurrency before investing in it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0How Bitcoin compares to history\u2019s biggest bubbles<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before stating that Bitcoin has crashed, it is important to take note of the cryptocurrency market as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":219068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[187,48333,27375,48375,35],"class_list":["post-245195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-bubble","tag-crash","tag-cryptocurrency-market","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245203,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245195\/revisions\/245203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}