The entire cryptocurrency market halts because Coin Market Cap decided to exclude Korean exchanges on Monday 8th January because the coin prices were in general 30% higher over there. The exclusion of these data led to an instant drop of $120 billion from the entire market capital which made their western counterparts on a selling frenzy thinking that the market is going to tank. On Sunday, the total market capitalisation was at all time high $835 billion. On Monday, it fell to as low as $685 billion and later came back up at $735 billion.
By Monday evening Bitcoin Cash was down 18%, Litecoin was down 12%, and XRP had fallen 26% over the past 24 hours. Out of the top 40 cryptocurrencies, 31 were down, including bitcoin and Ethereum.
This again highlights how the market is still its infancy and some websites like www.coinmarketcap .com holds so much influence over the market. Previously we have also seen how a rant or simple tweet from major financial institution CEOs swings the market. This also highlights how the majority of the investors are still not sure what they are investing in.
Japan, South Korea, and China became a dominant market for cryptocurrency even though the governments have been maintaining a frowning stance toward the booming market in general. Lately, however, the governments are taking positive steps to regulate the market so that people don’t lose money on a hype or there is no scam such as market manipulation. Authorities embracing the sector would certainly make the market safer for investors.