The last 24 hours have been a bloodbath on the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple all posting substantial drops, but the year-to-date numbers are even more worrisome.
Since the first of the year, Bitcoin’s market cap has dropped by $86.7 billion. The digital currency has seen its price fall from $14,112.20 on Jan. 1 to $8,908.56 in early trading Friday.
Overall, cryptocurrencies are off 34% year-to-date. The entire cryptocurrency field has lost $207.7 billion in market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
To put that in perspective, consider a similar drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow finished last year at 24,719.22. If it had tracked the cryptocurrency crash, it would now stand at 16,345—a number it hasn’t seen since early 2016. (And the country would almost certainly be in a massive depression.)
There are a few reasons for the most recent drops:
- India has become the latest country to have a regulatory crackdown on Bitcoin.
- There are fears that Bitcoin’s lofty valuation may be artificially propped up.
- Facebook has banned ads that promote cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.
However, the currency has been in free fall since mid-December. And aside from one bounce, the fall has been fairly consistent, prompting many to wonder where the bottom will be. One long-time Wall Street analyst is especially bearish, saying he expects Bitcoin will go as low as $1,000 before a recovery begins.