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Crypto markets collapsed as the Bitcoin Cash hard fork panicked investors today. After weeks of speculation regarding the split, which is led by rival billionaires, the market finally decided that the uncertainty over Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC had reached breaking point.

The Bitcoin Cash selloff began at around 09:04 UTC as volume increased dramatically. After trading at around $520 this morning, BCH fell off a cliff as investors ran for the hills, plunging the price as low as $410 and leading a wider market selloff in which Ethereum and altcoins suffered most.

The altcoins and Ethereum began to plummet shortly after the BCH selloff, with coins dropping in unison between 09:34 UTC and 09:44 UTC.

Along with a 19% drop in Bitcoin Cash, the market was left reeling from an altcoin bloodbath – Stellar (XLM) fared best, with a *mere* 11% drop, while further down the charts, Basic Attention Token (BAT) suffered a 22% drop and its new best friend on Coinbase, 0x (ZRX) was down 19%.

The global market cap plunged to under $190bn by 15:54 UTC.

Bitcoin Cash was on a slow downtrend by 4:00am ET, and then accelerated its descent as it continued to drop during heavy trading.

As is always the case in crypto, a proximate cause is hard to pinpoint: however, the fact that BCH has led the descent, and that the selloff of altcoins began moments after Bitcoin Cash plunged, suggest that the insecurity felt by the market over the hard fork may have been partly responsible for the market retreat.

Angel Versetti of blockchain project Ambrosus explained that “As people are moving into fiat, cryptocurrencies are taking a fall. Of course, this is further exacerbated by whales who are interested in maximising the amplitude of prices for digital assets, who also dumped their crypto holdings to swing trade.”

Altcoins, however, appear to have led a second round of heavy trading beginning at around 14:30 UTC during which the crypto market assessed the damage, possibly fleeing to Bitcoin (BTC) which suffered an 8% drop in value – a positively glowing financial beacon during a red day for cryptocurrency.

Donald Bullers of Elastos suggested that “It’s safe to say that Bitcoin Cash’s upcoming hard fork was stirring uncertainty amongst crypto investors” while Rohit Kulkarni of SharesPost volunteered that “Bitcoin has become a safe haven holding for long term crypto bulls, while crypto speculators are jumping off the ship from ETH and XRP.”

Craig Wright making good on his threat?

Craig Wright has threatened to “burn” Bitcoin Cash, and told Roger Ver, in a letter, that he would “see Bitcoin Cash die before ABC shits on it“. He also declared that he would “see BCH trade at zero for a few years“.

Does the man who claims to be Satoshi have the resources and desire to burn crypto to the ground?

Bitcoin Cash chart – November 13 – November 14 2018, 5 minute interval

The author is invested in Ethereum, which is mentioned in this article.