Bitcoin reaches its lowest level since October 2017 with the rout of digital coins

Sale in the virtual asset market continued until Thursday, with No. 1 digital currency on its way to its fourth consecutive loss and a new annual low.

One bitcoin

BTCUSD, -5.88%

last change of hands at $ 5,482.69, down 2.6% since Wednesday at 5 pm Eastern Time on Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange. Earlier in the session, bitcoin had reached $ 5,408.08, its lowest level in more than a year.

In the last 24 hours, the total value of all cryptocurrencies has lost more than $ 30 billion to reach $ 181 billion in one year, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

As investors recollect yesterday's stock market crash, a number of experts blame the expected sale of Bitcoin Cash for widespread sale. "Price volatility is not unusual in the cryptographic landscape, but [Wednesday’s] dip is important enough to prompt industry players to stop and take stock of the reasons why, "writes Donald Bullers, North American representative of Elastos, a blockchain-based data security service. .

"It is safe to say that the next difficult Bitcoin Cash fork was creating uncertainty among crypto investors, and forecasters in the crypto markets and traditional markets have predicted a prolonged bear market at the same time. horizon 2019. "

Brian Kelly, founder of BKCM Funds, echoed these comments and told CNBC last Wednesday that the dispute over the pending fork was akin to a crypto civil war.

Lily: What you need to know about Bitcoin Cash hard fork

What do altcoins and futures do?

The group of some 2000 non-bitcoin coins, called altcoins, is generally weaker on Thursday. Ether,

ETHUSD, -5.98%

was down 1.7% to $ 173.00, Litecoin

LTCUSD, -5.09%

had lost 1.2% to $ 41.53, XRP,

XRPUSD, -6.58%

was down 0.9% to 44 cents and Bitcoin Cash

BCHUSD, -11.15%

was the only major altcoin in the green, registering a 0.2% rise to $ 425.20.

In futures trading, the December contract of Cboe Global Markets

XBTZ8, -2.85%

is now the most active and is trading at $ 5,370, down 1.1%, while the November contract of the CME Group

BTCX8, -1.30%

was unchanged at $ 5,365.

Lily: Bitcoin futures contracts plummet to 13%, trigger trading limit

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