All the times Bitcoin has crashed and what led to it

There are increasing fears that majority of Bitcoin investors are on their way to lose their cash as the cryptocurrency’s value is on the downside. Within a single month, Bitcoin has lost 40 percent of its value. But this is not the first time this is happening.

In December 2017, a Bitcoin was almost worth $20,000. But the situation is not the same now as the price has fallen to $9,255 - that's the lowest since it first breached the $10,000 barrier in November last year.

“There is a lot of panic in the market. People are selling to try and get the hell out of there,” said Charles Hayter, founder of Cryptocompare.

However, this is not the first time Bitcoin would experience a bearish outlook. This will actually be the sixth time on the count.

Here are all the times Bitcoin has crashed and what led to it.

The April 2013 meltdown

The first time Bitcoin crashed was in April 2013. The price fell from $233 to $67 (71% fall in price) in just one day. Split in Bitcoin’s protocol led to the recording of transactions in two different logs. Hence, allowing spending the fund twice and effectively breaking Bitcoin into two.

The situation led to traders’ panic and they started selling off their coins.

December 2013 pop bubble

Although, the coin recovered quickly from the April crash and hit a $1,150 high in November of the same year. This recovery led many investors to put their money in the coin, and this led many regulating agencies to look into the trading of the instrument.

Regulatory measures by these agencies ended the party abruptly, and prices tumbled below $500 by mid-December.

Mt. Gox crisis of 2016

The hacking of Mt. Gox – a digital currency exchange platform, led to falling in the price of Bitcoin from $867 to $439 (a 49% drop).

On February 7, 2016, Mt. Gox halted withdrawals from the platform after hackers made off with 850,000 bitcoins (worth around $3.5 billion). This situation created doubts about the security of Bitcoin and undercut liquidity in the currency.

2017 Summer Selloff

In 2017, Bitcoin broke the $1,000 mark for the first time since 2014. By June of the same year, the currency has nudged $3,000. By mid of July, the price has fallen by 36% to $1,869.

The cause of this crash was linked to the problem with the code used in developing Bitcoin and a slowdown in the update of the digital currency. The news made the market to get jitters and the price fell big time. Also, the information about the development of Bitcoin Cash triggered a rumour about possible ‘fork’ of the coin.

The Chinese hammer of 2017

The clampdown on digital currency by the Chines government led to a 37% plunge in the price of Bitcoin in September 2017. Due to this decision by the Communist government, Bitcoin shaved over $30 billion in just 15 days.