Bitcoin was trading near $10,450 Wednesday morning, up about 2.9 percent for February but down nearly 21 percent for the year. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization plunged from a mid-December record high above $19,000 amid worries about heavy-handed crackdowns by regulators in different countries. In the last few weeks, bitcoin hit a low below $6,000 — its lowest since November — before recovering.
The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies excluding bitcoin has nearly halved to around $270 billion from a high of $511 billion in early January, according to CoinMarketCap
Historical performance of "alt-coins" such as Zcash and ripple after sharp drops also indicates investors should avoid them until late March
