Cryptocurrencies Tank As Panic Starts To Set In

investopedia.com:

As concerns rise that entrepreneurs are cashing out their initial coin offerings and that some digital tokens including Bitcoin may have become overvalued, nearly all of the largest cryptocurrencies fell.

In Monday trading Bitcoin declined 6.2% at one point, hitting $5,887, its lowest level since June before recovering some of the loss while Ether dipped 13%, according to Bloomberg, citing data from Coinmarketcap.com. Of the largest 100 cryptocurrencies tracked by Coinmarketcap.com, only one traded higher. The market capitalization of the digital tokens combined declined to $193 billion, a far cry from the $835 billion back in January, noted Bloomberg. (See more: Crypto Market Caps Plummet on Bitcoin ETF Woes.)

Whilecryptocurrency investors have been here before, this time around there are little signs that the sell-off in August will let up any time soon. Part of that has to do with cryptocurrencies' lofty valuations, Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at Blockstream Corp., a blockchain company, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He said they have been overvalued for a long time and while it's hard to pin the declines on one thing it does appear to be the opposite of last year when fear of missing out drove scores of investors into the crypto marketplace. “Now it’s piling out as they sense panic,” said Mow.

The declines in August come on the heels of a rally in July as investors bet a bitcoinexchange-traded fund would receive regulatory approval in the U.S. But regulators in the U.S. withheld approval for the Bitcoin ETF. Many investors view Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ETFs as a way to bring legitimacy to a market that is anonymous and unregulated. Investment firm VanEck and Solid X, a financial service company,