The cryptocurrency selloff that began on Tuesday continued into Wednesday’s London session, with the price of bitcoin falling nearly six percent in only a few hours. As of 11:07 a.m. GMT, Coinbase reported the price of bitcoin at $10,424.34, a 45.58 percent decline since last month, and down nearly $1000 since the Asian trading session. At the same time, ripple was trading at $1.0774837 after hitting near 90 cents on Tuesday. Ethereum was down 10.74 percent to $933.08836.
According to Coinmarketcap.com and as reported by CNBC, the total market capitalization of every digital coin was at $653.8 billion as of 7:00 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, before falling to a low of $450.5 billion by Tuesday evening. The value rebounded slightly, and was holding just over $479 billion just before noon on Wednesday in London.
As reported by CNBC, the one digital currency that weathered the selloff has been tether which is a digital currency that links the cryptocurrency market to the fiat world by linking each cryptocurrency to a fiat currency that is government-backed. By its nature, tether is meant to remain at $1 per token and isn’t designed to rise against the U.S. dollar, but it has managed to eke out some gains in the past 24 hours. Specifically, the currency gained just over 3 ercent before retreating on Wednesday. Nevertheless, skeptics have been quick to point out that last year tether was hacked and nearly $31 million worth of its tokens were stolen. Further, its inherent lack of volatility makes it a difficult purchase for those looking to profit quickly from the current cryptocurrency craze.