Explaining the cryptocurrency major downturn

Recently, the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, took quite a pounding in terms of its price and market capitalization.

Actually, pretty much the entire cryptocurrency space was driven into negative territory, removing billions in overall capitalization from the market.

Readers of this space know I’ve been following cryptocurrencies for a number of years and that I awarded two prizes of $50 in Bitcoin to contestants in a physics engineering contest back in June of 2015. One winner cashed in his prize the next day. The other kept it until it reached a value of around $4,000.

Back then in 2015, my motivation in awarding such prizes had nothing to do with investment. I was interested in the technology behind a cryptocurrency and wanted students to have an opportunity to explore Bitcoin.

Exactly what provided the recent downward pressure on Bitcoin and the others is not clear, but it was a relatively sudden trigger that saw valuations dropping 10 per cent or so in a couple of…