LONDON - All of the 10 biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation are plunging on Tuesday morning, with most suffering double-digit percentage losses.
Bitcoin fell as much as 14% in early trade, breaking through both $13,000 and $12,000 levels, but has recovered slightly since then. The decline appears to have spooked the market, with other coins selling off in at the same time.
Here's the scoreboard as of 8.45 a.m. GMT (3.45 a.m. ET) and per Markets Insider:
Bitcoin is down 11.3% against the dollar to $12,082.79;
Ethereum is down 11% against the dollar to $1,131.61;
Ripple is down 15.8% to $1.39;
Bitcoin Cash is down 6% to $199.45;
Cardano is down 14.1% to $0.69;
Litecoin is down 10.3% to $207.83;
Neo is down 14.3% to $160.37;
Nem is down 13% to $1.27;
Stellar is down 16.4% to $0.51;
IOTA is down 11.8% to $3.21.
Cryptocurrencies have experienced a volatile start to 2018 after an huge rally last year.
Increased regulatory scrutiny from South Korea has dampened sentiment in the sector. Mati Greenspan, an analyst at trading platform eToro, said declining volumes from Japan and South Korea appeared to be behind Tuesday morning's sell-off.
I definitely feel that stricter standards of regulation coming from Asia have put a huge damper on the market. That is a large sector of the crypto community and many coins are based there so it is for sure something that has potential to affect every one involved in cryptocurrency.