Predictions of a collapse of a speculative bubble in cryptocurrencies have been made by numerous experts in economics and financial markets. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been identified as speculative bubbles by several laureates of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, central bankers, and investors. In 2018, there was a large sell-off of cryptocurrencies. From January to February 2018, the price of Bitcoin fell 65 percent. By September 2018, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index had lost 80 percent of its value, making the decline of the cryptocurrency market, in percentage terms, larger than the bursting of the Dot-com bubble in 2002. In November 2018, the total market capitalization for Bitcoin fell below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017, and the Bitcoin price fell below $4,000, representing an 80 percent decline from its peak the previous January. From March 8–12, 2020, the Bitcoin price fell by 30 percent from $8,901 to $6,206.
Since the release of bitcoin, over 6,000 altcoins have been created. A January 2018 article by CBS cautioned about a cryptocurrency bubble and fraud, citing the case of BitConnect, a British company, which received a cease-and-desist order from the Texas State Securities Board. BitConnect had promised very high monthly returns but hadn't registered with state securities regulators or given their office address.
Initial coin offerings
noted in 2017 that the bubble in initial coin offerings was about to burst. Some investors bought ICOs in hopes of participating in the financial gains similar to those enjoyed by early Bitcoin or Ethereum speculators. Binance has been one of the biggest winners in this boom as it surged to become the largest cryptocurrency trading platform by volume. It lists dozens of digital tokens on its exchange. In June 2018 Ella Zhang of Binance Labs, a division of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, stated that she was hoping to see the bubble in ICOs collapse. She promised to help "fight scams and shit coins".
2018 crash
The 2018 cryptocurrency crash is the sell-off of most cryptocurrencies from January 2018. After an unprecedented boom in 2017, the price of bitcoin fell by about 65 percent during the month from 6 January to 6 February 2018. Subsequently, nearly all other cryptocurrencies also peaked from December 2017 through January 2018, and then followed bitcoin. By September 2018, cryptocurrencies collapsed 80% from their peak in January 2018, making the 2018 cryptocurrency crash worse than the Dot-com bubble's 78% collapse. By 26 November, bitcoin also fell by over 80% from its peak, having lost almost one-third of its value in the previous week.
Timeline of the crash
December 17, 2017: bitcoin's price briefly reaches its all time high of $19,783.06.
December 22, 2017, bitcoin fell below $11,000, a fall of 45% from its peak.
January 12, 2018, Amidst rumors that South Korea could be preparing to ban trading in cryptocurrency, the price of bitcoin depreciated by 12 percent.
January 26, 2018, Coincheck, Japan's largest cryptocurrency OTC market, was hacked. 530 million US dollars of the NEM were stolen by the hacker, and the loss was the largest ever by an incident of theft, which caused Coincheck to indefinitely suspend trading.
From 26 January to 6 February, the price of Bitcoin halved, and reached 6,000 US dollars. Additional negative news for the cryptocurrency market continued in the first quarter of 2018. The price remained low though the level slightly recovered in the first quarter of 2018.
March 7, 2018, Compromised Binance API keys were used to execute irregular trades.
Late March 2018, Facebook, Google, and Twitter banned advertisements for initial coin offerings and token sales.
November 15, 2018, Bitcoin's market capitalization fell below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017 and the price of Bitcoin fell to $5,500.
