The bitcoin bust continued Monday (Nov. 19), with the price of the cryptocurrency falling to $4,905 by mid-afternoon, a decline of at least 12 percent.
Over the past week, the price of bitcoin has declined some 20 percent — and at least 60 percent since January. “Bitcoin futures also hit their lowest levels since their introduction in December 2017, with Bitcoin CME November futures down to $4,855 and bitcoin contracts on the CBOE down at $4,878.10,” reads one report from Monday. Ethereum and Ripple also have experienced recent declines.
According to CoinDesk, “The broader cryptocurrency market accompanied BTC in its steep sell-off and has shed more than $15 billion in total market capitalization in the last 24 hours.”
The price of bitcoin peaked at nearly $20,000 a few days before Christmas last year, then fell sharply through the first half of 2018 before hitting that $6,000 floor in June. Some had begun to speculate that bitcoin — and cryptocurrency more broadly — was emerging from its speculation-driven period and settling into greater stability.
The reasons for the severe decline are still not clear or agreed upon.
An emerging consensus says that bitcoin’s troubles are going to get worse before they get better — which will be trouble for bitcoin miners, investors and enthusiasts, not to mention a host of crypto-connected enterprises. But it will also have ripple effects that will hit downstream, perhaps in some unexpected places, according to a PYMNTS article.
If you ask analysts who are pessimistic about the price of bitcoin, you will hear predictions that bitcoin will likely to continue to fall until sometime during Q2 2019. How low can bitcoin go? In their estimate, $1,500 might be the rebuilding point it will be starting from in 2019.