Bitcoin Price Slumps While Altcoins Party

Also read: The Wealthiest Serving Congressman Just Bought His First Bitcoin

It’s a far cry from just a two months ago, which saw cheers of “to the moon!” as the bitcoin price reached $772 on June 16. It crashed to $593 on June 22 before recovering back to $707 by July 2, and has been mostly in decline since.

It should be noted that the price is still higher than August 2, when it suddenly crashed to $535 upon news of the Bitfinex hack. The rebound from that low has been weak, succumbing once again to gravity.

You can always stay up to date on the latest Bitcoin price movements with Bitcoin.com’s price charts.

What’s Happening to the Bitcoin Price?
One glaringly obvious reason for the drama is the hack on one of Bitcoin’s most popular exchanges, Bitfinex. The $70 million theft is the largest in the Bitcoin world since Mt Gox, which caused price chaos on a grander scale in 2014.

Such a news event hauls Bitcoin back into the mainstream media spotlight and, given the media’s tendency to report mainly negative news, reinforces the unfortunate public notion that Bitcoin is a wild west at best, and unstable at worst.

Bitfinex’s response to the crisis has come under fire from many within the community too, socializing losses of around 36 percent across all accounts and offering a form of IOU to its customers who wonder whether any company could recover from such a disaster. Some also protested that their non-bitcoin account values had been tapped to even out losses.

Sucking up the Oxygen (and Money)