What seemed to be a promising investment, Bitcoin and other digital coins suddenly tanked, wiping some $200 billion off the cryptocurrency market.
The market capitalization or value of the cryptocurrency market down from $1,06 trillion to $880 billion, in just one day.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, fell to $30,525 from 41,452. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was down to $925 from $1,344.
The sell-off in cryptocurrencies comes after a huge rally and perhaps signals some profit-taking from investors.
Despite its tumbling price, Bitcoin at this time is still up over 300% in the last 12 months.
"The correction we saw was expected as we believe the BTC price surge recently from under $20,000 to $40,000 in the past four weeks will induce sell pressure," said Simons Chen, executive director of investment and trading at cryptocurrency financial services firm Babel Finance.
The volatile nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency is taking yet another twist.
But again, like before, it's to be determined whether this sudden drop is the start of a larger correction, or not.
Bitcoin’s price has more than quadrupled in the past year, evoking memories of the 2017 when the cryptocurrency first made itself a household name before its price collapsed just as quickly.
Despite a slow recovery, Bitcoin managed to eventually break the parabola. And this time, long-term investors are counting on that again.
True and hardcore believers in Bitcoin argue the difference this time is because the asset has matured. With more users and investors, they see the cryptocurrency increasingly becoming legitimate hedge against dollar weakness and inflation risk.
After all, it's even been likened to "digital gold."
These people suggest that the pullback in Bitcoin could translate to more buying opportunities for new investors.
But some Bitcoin critics however, called this moment as the "Bitcoin a bubble".
Those people consider the bubble as a proof that Bitcoin's growth rate is not sustainable. While cryptocurrencies in general will mature, to them, Bitcoin in particular exists largely as a speculative asset.
Because of this, those people don't consider Bitcoin to ever serve as a viable currency alternative.
Bitcoin was created back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. The main difference between the digital coin and other assets is that, the cryptocurrency is designed to be decentralized, meaning that it doesn't need a central authority to control it.
