Cryptocurrencies markets are in freefall again with heavy declines being seen across the entire market.
At the time of writing, here is the state of play in the industry over the last 24 hours according to Coin Market Cap:
- The Bitcoin (BTC) price has fallen 10.5% to US$8,290.76.
- The Ethereum (ETH) price is off 11.5% to US$614.84.
- The Ripple (XRP) price is 11% lower to 70.7 U.S. cents.
- The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price is lower by 11.2% to US$949.77.
- The Litecoin (LTC) price is down 8% to US$161.79.
- The Cardano (ADA) price is off 12% to 19.9 U.S. cents.
- The NEO (NEO) price has fallen 14% to US$71.83.
- The Stellar Lumens (XLM) price is down 14% to 25 U.S. cents.
- The EOS (EOS) price is lower by 9% to US$5.35.
- The NEM (XEM) price has tumbled 10.5% to 42 U.S. cents.
What caused this decline?
As well as being dealt a blow by a note out of Allianz Global Investors stating that it is a case of the crypto bubble bursting when and not if, the crypto market was hit hard when global search engine giant Google made an announcement.
According to the release, Google plans to follow in the footsteps of social media behemoth Facebook, which cracked down on crypto advertising in January, by banning all cryptocurrency advertising from June onwards.
When Facebook announced its plan at the start of the year it caused the bitcoin price to fall 12%, so it isn't at all surprising to see such heavy declines overnight.
Nor would I be surprised to see Twitter make it a trifecta in the coming months.
Which would be bad news for cryptocurrencies as advertising through these platforms has been a great way for cryptocurrencies to reach would-be traders.
Should you buy the dip?
While bitcoin and its peers could of course bounce back strongly once again as they have many times before, I would suggest that traders stay clear of the market whilst sentiment is so negative.
Especially when I see very few positive catalysts on the horizon that could change market sentiment in the near term.
