Crypto currencies continue steep decline

After a few days of positive movement on the crypto markets, Wednesday was another dismal day for investors as all major currencies slumped downwards erasing most of the gains made during the past week. The chief loser was Ethereum Classic which had been on an incredible bull run, gaining over 30% in the past week but lost 15% in just a few hours. This was followed by Litecoin which also lost well over 10% having reached highs of around $240 but was back to flirting with the $200 mark yesterday.

Bitcoin Cash also had a torrid day losing around 10% of its value after having exceeded the $1500 mark but was back to trading around the $1350 level. The currency has struggled to move upwards in the past few days after being one of the first to spike considerably after the early February crash. The same could be said for Ripple which also lost in its value and dipped below the psychologically sensitive $1 mark to trade at around $0.97 although it dropped to as low as $0.95 in one of the dips.

Legacy Bitcoin also dropped by around 10% as it was flirting with the $12,000 mark early on Wednesday but eventually dropped to just above the psychologically significant $10,000 level after which it stabilized at about $10,500. It appears that there are strong pressures which are not allowing the currency to progress significantly beyond the $12,000 mark with selling pressure at this level very evident here.

Ethereum once again disappointed and fell to well below the $900 level to trade at around $830 although it did recover slightly in the past few hours. Analysts are predicting a bullish future for this coin but it does seem to be taking its time to reach the levels expected of it. The same goes for Dash which also dropped albeit not as strongly as the other currencies but was trading at below the $700 mark yet again this being a psychologically significant level.

Other crypto currencies which are smaller by market cap also posted steep declines. The main loser was Stellar Lumens which saw its value plummet by over 11% and was trading at around $0.39 to practically erase all the gains made in the past week whilst NEO lost a similar amount to trade at around $115 before recovering slightly to the $120 mark.

On Monday, the cryptocurrency market cap had traded near $510 billion for most of the day, but at approximately 18:00 ET, $32 billion evaporated from the index. By the time of writing, the market had recovered to $484.6 billion, but this nevertheless represents a single-day decrease of more than four percent.

The market's pullback was catalyzed by a precipitous Bitcoin price decline. On Monday, the flagship cryptocurrency had extended its rally as far as $11,788 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, at which point Bitcoin appeared to tumble off a cliff. Over the ensuing six hours, the Bitcoin price declined by more than $1,000, ultimately bottoming out at $10,680. Since regaining its footing, Bitcoin has recovered to just above the $11,000 mark, but it is currently unclear whether it will manage to hold at this level. In fact it has continued to decline and is now close to the $10,000 with that level expectd to be breached quite soon.

Despite this decline, Bitcoin continues to increase its market share, enabling it to re-establish its dominance over the altcoin markets. At present, Bitcoin boasts a $189 billion market cap, which represents a 39 percent share of the total market cap.

The Ethereum price, meanwhile, posted an even steeper day-over-day decline, falling more than five percent to $887 after trading as high as $959 on Monday. Ethereum now has a market cap of $87.5 billion, which translates into an 18.2 percent share of the index. The Ripple price declined by six percent and is currently holding just two cents above dollar parity. Bitcoin Cash endured an eight percent decline and is currently valued at $1,379. NEO did not fare much better, and its tokens are now trading at $125.

A previously-surging Litecoin posted the worst performance among top 10 cryptocurrencies, reducing its price to $221. Cardano, EOS, and Stellar each posted seven percent declines, while IOTA rounded out the top 10 with a six percent tumble to $1.91. The decline seems to be continuing with a bear market expected over the weekend.