Bitcoin Loses 13.7 Percent in 24 Hours, Monero Leaves Top 10

Cross-crypto casualties are mounting in virtual currencies’ latest slide, occurring as Bitmain reignites the hard fork debate.
Cross-crypto casualties are mounting in virtual currencies’ latest slide, occurring as Bitmain reignites the hard fork debate.

The latest cryptocurrency slide has seen Bitcoin and others lose more than 15 percent and Monero leave the top 10.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows the effects of Bitcoin’s depreciation on Wednesday and Thursday, with every premier altcoin following it downhill.

CoinMarketCap

While commentators scramble to look for an underlying cause, much like previous recent bouts of volatility, it would appear markets remain shy of the $3,000 barrier, which has proven significant.

The downturn, however, coincided with pro-hard fork Bitmain’s announcement it would oppose the implementation of the increasingly popular user-activated soft fork (UASF) as a means to bring about a solution to Bitcoin’s scaling dilemma.

UASF supporters came out in condemnation of the move, Tone Vays tweeting it had made potential investors “lose confidence” in the virtual currency.

Businesses have also signaled opposition to Bitmain, a notable public addition coming today from P2P marketplace Bitsquare.

Closer to the bottom of the chart, Monero lost its spot to Stratis, which has risen rapidly over the past few weeks.

Lead developer Riccardo Spagni has become known for his defense of Monero as an asset whose purpose is not to serve short-term investors.