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The selloff in cryptocurrencies resumed Tuesday afternoon, with most major coins trading lower.
After shedding more than 10% Sunday, bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, is set for another losing day, trading below $6,500 and nearing a four-month low. The price of a single bitcoin hit an intraday low of $6,455.92 and was worth $6,520.66, down 3.5% since 5 p.m. Monday, Eastern time, on the Kraken crypto exchange.
Taking stock of their losses, crypto prices began Tuesday in quiet fashion. “There’s a lot of wait and see now. Since then [the selloff Sunday] volumes have receded and at this level there is a general lack of interest,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro.
However, the interest resumed, and it was from the selling community.
By mid-afternoon, the value of all cryptocurrencies had fallen to $282 billion, its lowest level since April 12, according to data from Coinmarketcap.
Ethereum classic spikes
The one bright spot for cryptocurrency owners has been Ethereum classic, which rose by as much as 25% Tuesday, after news that Coinbase, one of the biggest U.S.based digital exchanges, said it was in the process of adding the digital currency to its trading platform. In a blog post, Coinbase said it was in the engineering stage and expects it to be launched in the “next few months.”
Ethereum classic was created in July 2015 as a result of a hard fork by Ethereum. A hard fork is when a single cryptocurrency splits into two because of a change in the rules used by nodes to validate transactions and not all users agree on the change.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Ethereum classic is the 18th-largest digital currency, with a market cap of $1.6 billion.
Altcoins resume move lower
Coins other than bitcoin, known as altcoins, have given up early morning gains. Ether has fallen 4% to $494.92; bitcoin cash is the worst performer, down 6.7% at $864.40; Litecoin is down 5.7% at $99.11; and Ripple’s XRP coin has lost 4.5% at 55 cents.
Bitcoin futures didn’t fair any better. The Cboe June contract closed down 3.2% at $6,535, while the CME June contract finished Tuesday down 3.7% at $6,500.