Bitcoin price hit a yearly low around $5,781 at 16:00 (GMT+8) June 24. The recent drop has seen bitcoin lose more than 70% from $20,000 since its all-time high price last December.

As the original cryptocurrency, bitcoin has created a legend of millions-of-times spike hitting a high of $20,000 in 9 years since its birth.

Massive slump in the crypto market

According to data from Huobi, bitcoin hit a record low of $5,781 since 2018 as of 16:00 June 24. Calculated by 17 million bitcoins, an incredible $230 billion has been wiped off the bitcoin market cap in the past six months as 2018 turned the market from a bullish sentiment to bearish seemingly identical to that of 2014. The drop has accelerated in recent days, with bitcoin falling nearly $1,000 in the last three days alone.

The rest of the cryptocurrency market is also in very much red. Out of the top ones, ETH has fallen 69% from a high of $1,422 to now barely $440, EOS has suffered too, its all-time high price of $22.9 now declined to just $7, a 70% drop in three months.

Regarding this round of crypto massive drop, some Chinese investors show no panics about it, saying

“(Be easy) ‘$230 billion’ was wiped off the Chinese stock market barely in ONE day”.

As the recent crypto slump was dwarfed by the Chinese stock crash last Tuesday when a two-year low was hit and $406 billion wiped.

“Compared to Chinese stocks, a plurality of which fall 50% in 6 months and 90% in 3 years, bitcoin, though with risks, spiking millions of times in 10 years, is much comforting.”

4 reasons why bitcoin plummet

1. The financial regulator of Japan has sent business improvement orders to 6 major cryptocurrency exchanges, in a bid to strengthen its regulation over domestic crypto operators.
2. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb reported a system breach that resulted in approximately $31 million worth of cryptocurrencies being stolen.
3. Security breach in the Ethereum smart contract has been exposed, which allowed attackers to steal crypto assets in the affected contract address at will.
4. EOS 21 voted block producers froze seven accounts that were accused of holding stolen funds, upon which critics argue that EOS is guilty of violating ‘decentralization’ and ‘immutability’.

A closer look at these factors reveals that both the security issues and governments’ regulations are painpoints of cryptocurrency in the long run, no matter it is in a bullish run or bearish.

While the primary reason for the drop lies in the real value of these cryptocurrencies.

“2017’s bullish sentiment has attracted colossal capital into the crypto market, which created the bubble. It is reasonable the market is correcting it.” A industrial insider said.

Many assume a $6,000 bottom for BTC which is in the range of bitcoin mining cost, but now BTC has slipped below this critical level, where will it bottom out? A sell-off time or a buy-in time?