Crypto carnage: Bitcoin briefly dips below $10,000 on Coinbase, and ethereum crashes too
- Bitcoin temporarily tumbles 28 percent to below $10,000Â on Coinbase.
- Ethereum briefly drops more than 30 percent over the last 24 hours.
- Ripple, the third-largest digital currency by market capitalization, briefly drops 46 percent below $1, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin breaks below $10K from CNBC.
Bitcoin briefly plunged below $10,000 late Tuesday afternoon on Coinbase, after first topping the psychologically key level in late November.
Other major digital currencies also sold off sharply. Digital currency ethereum plunged 30 percent Tuesday, to below $1,000, while ripple fell below $1.
In fact, nearly every major cryptocurrency suffered massive losses during the day.
Ethereum traded at about $1,062 as of 8:12 p.m. ET. That represented a sizable rebound after hitting a low of $854 earlier in the afternoon. Coinbase is the leading U.S. marketplace for trading bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash.
The declines followed comments from South Korean authorities that indicated tougher regulation on digital currency trading. However, there was no immediately apparent driver behind the late-afternoon decline.
Ethereum 24-hour performance
Source: Coinbase
Bitcoin dropped 28 percent to a low of $9,969 on Coinbase, but quickly jumped back up to trade back above $11,000 as of 8:12 p.m., ET.
Bitcoin has now nearly halved in price after topping $19,800 in mid-December. But the digital currency remains more than 1,100 percent higher over the last 12 months, according to Coinbase.
Bitcoin 1-hour performance
Source: Coinbase
Ripple, the third-largest digital currency by market capitalization, traded near $1.18 after earlier plunging 46 percent to near 90 cents, according to CoinMarketCap. Last week, the site began excluding prices from some South Korean exchanges, where ripple trades about 20 cents higher.
