Bitcoin Cash Tanks 13 Percent as Major Cryptocurrencies All Fall Hard

Friday, Dec. 14 — Bitcoin Cash (BCH) led fresh losses across cryptocurrency markets as investors in the top 20 twenty assets by market cap shouldered new lows.

Market visualization from Coin360

Data from Cointelegraph’s own price index, Coin360. and CoinMarketCap painted a gloomy picture at press time on Friday, with Bitcoin (BTC) dropping about 3.5 percent in 24 hours.

Having staved off a move below last week’s current “bottom” around $3,220, BTC/USD has failed to find support much higher and is now circling around $3,300 to cap off an almost 50 percent loss on the month.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index

Worries over the fate of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) gaining United States regulators’ approval in February, combined with uncertainty over when the 2018 bear market could end, have limited the largest cryptocurrency’s prospects for gains in the short term.

Many still remain steadfast believers in a Bitcoin U-turn, the most recent of which was ratings agency Weiss, which said this week that BTC represented one of the “best buying opportunities” of the year at current prices.

In altcoin markets, BCH continued what had become a common sight for day traders this week, losing more against USD than any other asset in the top 20.

A hashrate war with rival faction Bitcoin SV (BSV) has continued since the pair split from the BCH chain in a contentious hard fork Nov. 15.

Since then, BSV has made a habit of trading inversely with BTC, gaining when the majority of assets fall and vice versa.

Friday revealed BCH as the major loser, however, shedding its market cap to fall below the USD price of Ethereum (ETH) for the first time on a 13.3 percent daily drop.

Just $125 million now separates the market cap of BCH and BSV.

Bitcoin Cash 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Cash Price Index

ETH itself, meanwhile, failed to capitalize on updates about its Constantinople hard fork, which will bring various technological advances to the network.

At press time, ETH/USD was trailing at around $86, its lowest level since May 2017.

Ethereum 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index

Other major altcoins saw losses between 1 percent and 9 percent, BSV coming in second behind BCH’s performance.