Crypto market daily report – September 6, 2018

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In what seems to be another case of déjà vu, the cryptocurrency markets wiped out two weeks of positive gains in a matter of a few hours with the value of the entire market dropping by no less than $40 billion. This wild swing is leading many to lose confidence in the whole ecosystem as a whole on fear that the markets are being manipulated to a large extent.

BTC was down by over 10% from an intraday high of $7,400 to below the $6,400 level, settling at around $6,350 at press time. Bitcoin Cash also slid by well over 20% from a high of $650 to just over the $500 level. Ripple was also down by around 15% to the $0.28 mark, whilst EOS declined by a similar 20% to around the $5 level after having touched the $6.50 mark earlier in the day.

The biggest loser of the crash was by far Ethereum, which saw a spectacular 30% decrease from around $300 to the $220 level. Ethereum is now at its August 2017 price, meaning all the gains that were made over the year when the price even rose to the $1500 level for a short while in January have been completely erased—and several projects that have looked to Ethereum for funding now underwater.

The ETH price decline is primarily sentiment driven, caused by a bearish crypto market, accompanied by a decrease in retail demand for ICOs. Ethereum hype has cooled off as investors started to become aware of the significance of scaling limits, and hundreds of projects that raised millions in ICOs which aren’t delivering on their promises. Additionally, utility tokens have become questionable from purely economic and regulatory reasons.

Other currencies also saw spectacular fall ranging from 15 to 25%. NEO was down to the $0.197 level, whilst Stellar once again crashed to below the $0.20 level and was trading at around $0.18 at press time. Litecoin was down to the $55 level, whilst Ethereum Classic careened down to the $11.50 mark. VET, ONT, ICX and IOTA all experienced 15-20% drops to settle at bi-monthly lows, with the latter dropping below the $.60 level or a 30% decline from its recent high of $0.80.