The crypto retreat continued Monday with all major coins beginning the trading week in the red, as the disastrous September shows no sign of receding. It’s against this backdrop that criticism of the still untested market — this time from closely followed analyst Wolf Richter — bellows.
Bitcoin, the worlds biggest digital currency, crept back towards its 2018 low, trading to $6,120.31 on Saturday, its lowest level in nearly a month. In early morning trading, a single bitcoin
BTCUSD, -1.50%
last changed hands at $6,299.89, down 1.4% since Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange.
The crypto rout has wiped nearly $50 billion off the total value of all coins in less than five days, and at least one financial blogger has called into question the integrity of the market. “Because cryptos are decentralized, everyone can create their own, and all kinds of outfits are mining new units of existing cryptos. It’s really just a big joke,” wrote Richter, of the Wolf Street financial blog.
“But people are losing large amounts usually expressed in their hated fiat currency. The pain is real. And the numbers are big,” he added.
Read: Bitcoin bulls sent reeling by ‘very damaging drop,’ says chart watcher
Ether tumbles to a one-year low
Ether, the second largest digital currency, plummeted below $200 on Saturday for the first time since Sept. 2017 and made a fresh one-year low, hitting $185. Ether
ETHUSD, -3.09%
was last trading at $196.44, down 2.5%.
The plight of Ether has been much talked about with some pundits blaming the flailing initial coin offering (ICO) market for the mounting losses, the theory being many ventures are cash-strapped and are having to sell Ether to raise fiat. An ICO is a crowdfunding tool in which crypto ventures raise funds for operation.
Elsewhere, the losses continued to mount. Bitcoin Cash
BCHUSD, -2.19%
was down 2% to $478.60, Litecoin
LTCUSD, -3.28%
was down 3.4% at $54.20 and Ripple’s XRP coin
XRPUSD, -4.08%
was trading at 27 cents, down 3.3%.
Futures began the week on the back foot. The Cboe Global Markets Group Inc.’s September contract
XBTU8, -2.23%
was down 2.1% at $6,270, while the comparable CME Group Inc. September contract
BTCU8, -2.03%
was down 2% at $6,260.
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Source : MTV
