The overall market capitalization for the cryptocurrency market fell below $100 billion this morning amid new developments out of China.
That figure dropped to as low as $98.95 billion, down from $179 billion just two weeks ago – a fall of 47.7 percent, according to CoinMarketCap data. That loss has been driven by broad declines across the top-10 cryptocurrency markets, with ethereum classic, litecoin and bitcoin cash being hardest hit among those in the top-10 list. Each of those markets is showing 24-hour declines in excess of 15 percent.
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Since that slide below $100 billion, the market has recovered somewhat, hovering around $108.8 billion at press time.
Of course, most eyes are on bitcoin today, the news is not good.
Having topped out at a spectacular all-time high of $5,013 on September 1, prices have since continued to drop amid likely profit-taking by traders and, more recently, the crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges by the People's Bank of China and other authorities in the country.
Already two China-based exchanges – BTCC and ViaBTC – have announced they will close this week in compliance with the authorities' statement, and a new document revealed this morning suggests that all other exchanges in the country will have to follow suit.
With China being a major location for bitcoin trading globally, this all is having a strong affect on prices, and today saw a five-week low of $2,951, having started the session at $3,226. At press time, bitcoin's price had recovered, rising back to $3,291.00 according to the BPI.
Bitcoin's market capitalization has also fallen as a result, now sitting at roughly $53 billion – down from $81.9 billion on September 2, according to CoinMarketCap.