Cryptocurrencies lost about $170 billion in value in 24 hours, amid sharp losses for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Within 24 hours, Bitcoin fell by about 6% to $54.5 thousand, which is the first time that the currency has traded at levels below $55 thousand since the end of February. Ethereum also fell 9% to $2,872, according to CoinGeck data
The reasons behind the sharp losses of Bitcoin?
The trustee of the bankrupt Japanese company Mt. Gox pays certain creditors' rights in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash through a range of cryptocurrency exchanges. The amount of money transferred through these exchanges was not disclosed.
The remaining funds are scheduled to be returned to creditors once a set of conditions are met, including confirmation of the validity of registered accounts, and completion of discussions between the trustee and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Bitcoin was recently under pressure due to news that the cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox is preparing to distribute about $9 billion worth of Bitcoin to users. According to this news, this process will lead to a selling movement in the cryptocurrency market.
In a separate context, the German government sold about 3,000 bitcoins ($175 million at today's prices) out of a total of 50,000 bitcoins confiscated from the movie piracy platform Movie2k.
