BackBitcoin plunges below $11,000 following cryptocurrency's epic surge in 2019
The price of the largest cryptocurrency fell 11% since FridayOptimism surrounding a potential increase in adoption of cryptocurrencies helped fuel price increases on Bitcoin
PremiumBitcoin slumped, undoing some of this year’s epic rally and amplifying a recent trend of outsized weekend moves.
The price of the largest cryptocurrency fell 11% since Friday and traded at $10,901.43 as of 8:15 a.m. in Tokyo. It’s still up about 200% since the start of the year. Other coins also dropped: Ethereum -4.2%, Ripple -5.1%.
Optimism surrounding a potential increase in adoption of cryptocurrencies helped fuel price increases on Bitcoin at an accelerating rate last month. That took prices back to levels last seen at the start of 2018. The slide over the weekend is at odds with recent moves higher on Saturday and Sunday: surges in weekend activity since the start of May account for about 40% of Bitcoin’s price gains this year, according to Bloomberg data.
Cryptocurrency apps: What numbers are saying
Despite Bitcoin tripling in price this quarter, consumers aren’t any more interested in downloading cryptocurrency applications on their phones and mobile devices than they were in the first half of 2018, when the digital-asset market tanked, according to app tracker AppAnnie.com.
Mobile phones are the only way for people to access the internet -- and to interact with cryptocurrencies -- in much of the world. Even in developed markets like the US, many people use mobile apps to trade.
AppAnnie.com looked at apps downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play, where it found more than 6,500 in the finance category with words such as cryptocurrency, blockchain or Bitcoin in their description as of June 26. In the first half of 2019, people downloaded 67 million crypto apps, compared with 65.8 million in the first six months of last year. The total number of apps is up 35% from January 2018, thanks to the debut of ones from the likes of the Gemini exchange.
The apps are just one of many indicators that consumer enthusiasm may not be driving this year’s rally, and that adoption of crypto may not be growing at the same break-neck pace. Google searches for the word Bitcoin were five times higher in December 2017 as well.
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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
