Crypto Prices Plummet Sharply, With Significant Losses Across the Board

Almost all of the top one hundred cryptocurrencies by market cap have seen significant losses within the space of just a few hours today, June 22, as data from Coin360 shows.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has dropped to just under $268.4 billion at press time, dropping a hefty $16 billion on the day.

All of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap have lost between 4 and around 10 percent over the 24-hour period, according to Coinmarketcap, with EOS dropping most sharply, trading at $9.45 to press time, down 10.08 percent.

EOS' tumbling fortunes this week could also be related to the fact that it is the top-traded altcoin on leading South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, which suffered a $30 million theft when its hot wallet was hacked on the night of June 19.At the time of the hack, Bithumb was ranked sixth largest crypto exchange by trade volumes globally, but has now dropped to ninth place following news of the high-profile incident.

While news of a security breach on a major crypto trading platform can significantly undermine market confidence in the immediate term, analysts have this week been closely following the crypto markets with an eye on technical performance.

The president of Blue Line Futures has said that with Bitcoin's rolling 30-day annualized volatility declining to 61 percent as compared with its peak of over 150 percent last year, the stats now indicate that "Selling has become exhausted," signalling that cryptocurrencies are likely in a bottoming process.

The traditional financial sector continues to closely follow developments in the crypto and blockchain space, with board director of the Swiss National Bank Thomas Moser this week saying that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are still too rudimentary to consider issuing a state-backed digital currency, and that he cannot envision an "e-franc" anytime soon.

Speaking at the Crypto Valley blockchain conference in Zug, the director admitted that blockchain technology has potential, but only when it "Looks very different from what it does today."

Just yesterday, Bloomberg Terminal announced it would now be listing crypto exchange Huobi's Cryptocurrency Index, which it said was a mark of bringing cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial marketplace.

Bloomberg Terminal will also list prices for nine crypto trading pairs, denominated in Tether, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, Ripple, Dash, EOS, and ZCash.