Swanepoel's statement was in response to the impact of the coronavirus on the crypto market as the United States government announced a travel ban on Europe. The US ban has led to losses across all the main altcoins on Thursday, March 12th, 2020.
Bitcoin is back below $7,500 after plunging to as low as $5,678 - the lowest level since May 2019 in the earlier hours of the announcement.
Ethereum is down to $179, and XRP has crashed below $0.20 to trade at $0.91 as the impact on cross border trade becomes clear. Bitcoin Cash is at $245, a coin which was looking to break above $500 a few weeks ago.
“There is no surprise that as coronavirus has been classified as a global pandemic, and for the first time, the US has acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, that all markets are coming under pressure.
“We do still believe that cryptocurrencies will find buyers coming back in for them as investors will want to be in assets that are uncorrelated to the main markets.”
Reacting to the news, the global market plunged at a furious pace Thursday with S&P 500 futures sliding by 5% and Dow futures dropping over 1000 points at pre-day trading.