Bitcoin loses 21 percent of its value in broad cryptocurrency rout

The cryptocurrency world has experienced its biggest one-day plunge in months. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, is down 21 percent over the last 24 hours. Earlier today, Bitcoin fell below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019.

Ether, the currency of the Ethereum network, is down a whopping 27 percent. Lesser-known cryptocurrencies have seen similarly large losses.

There’s no obvious cryptocurrency-specific reason for the crash. Instead, it seems to be part of the broader coronavirus-related selloff that has rocked stock markets around the world.

As of publication time, the S&P 500 is down more than 6 percent from yesterday’s closing price and almost 25 percent from its mid-February peak. Bitcoin itself has fallen from a mid-February peak near $10,500 to its current value just above $6,000—a decline of 42 percent.

Investors have been unloading volatile assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies and buying government bonds. This week the yield on…