Bitcoin falls below $5,000 for first time in 13 months as slump continues

The value of bitcoin has dropped below $5,000 for the first time in 13 months as the bitcoin cash split continues to weighs heavily on cryptocurrencies.

The world's largest cryptocurrency by volume has dropped 13 per cent today to lows of $4,827 , while ripple and ethereum also fell to yearly lows of $0.46 and $147.16 respectively, according to data from Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp.

The move marks bitcoin's lowest value since October last year, and is now down more than 70 per cent since the height of the cryptocurrency bubble in December 2017.

The slide began last week, as bitcoin fell below the $100bn market capitalisation for the first time since the bubble.

It is largely attributed to uncertainty in the market following the so-called hard fork of bitcoin cash, which is split into two new currencies: bitcoin ABC and bitcoin SV.

Bitcoin cash itself was forked away from bitcoin in August last year, over disagreements on how to scale the digital asset.

Etoro analyst Mati Greenspan told City PM: “The breakout we saw last week served to many analysts as confirmation bias that the bear still has legs.

“The incredible rise of 2017 has sent the markets higher than can logically be supported by real-world adoption and so now we're seeing a retracement of that.”

The cryptocurrency's price had previously seemed to have stabilised in recent months, sitting between the $6,000 and $6,800 mark since September.

Greenspan added: “What's interesting to note is that the latest move coincides with strong volatility in the stock markets and a US dollar that is strengthening on Fed policy.

“As with all things, what moves prices is sentiment and for the moment, it seems to be decidedly negative.”