Bitcoin Price Falls $1,000 in Minutes to Drop Below $10k

The price of bitcoin fell more than $1,000 in the span of about 10 minutes on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) today, just hours after the cryptocurrency set an all-time high above $11,000.

Beginning about 19:20 UTC, sell orders began piling up on exchanges in what was perhaps one of the market's most impressive successions of red candles in some time. After showing signs of stability above $10,000 at 18:30 UTC, the price hit a low of $9,290 at 19:30.

However, data shows some exchanges were more affected than others.

According to social media, the price decline coincides with reports that GDAX, the exchange offering of cryptocurrency startup Coinbase, had seen a service outage that is currently ongoing. Data from GDAX indicates the exchange hit a low of $8,593 before going offline.

Social media reports also suggest that Bitstamp and Gemini have faced outages or interruptions today, at a time that coincides with increasing mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies. According to data provider TradeBlock, GDAX, Bitstamp and Bitfinex are all currently operating unreliably.

The more than 11 percent decline marked the lowest price observed on the BPI since Nov. 26 when bitcoin hit a low of $8,757.