Over half a trillion dollars of value has been wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market in just under a month, as the prices of popular digital coins plunge.

On January 7, the market capitalization or value of the entire cryptocurrency market hit an all-time high of $835.69 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com, a website that takes into account the prices of over 1,000 digital coins across different exchanges. In early trade on Tuesday, the value of the cryptocurrency market had plunged to $278.53 billion, marking a more than $557.1 billion drop since the record high.

It comes as virtual coins across the board take a hammering. Bitcoin briefly dipped below $6,000 for the first time since mid-November on Monday, according to data from CoinDesk. Bitcoin is still significantly higher on the year but down sharply since it recorded an all-time high of $19,783.21 in December.

Bitcoin's market cap has fallen $233.5 billion since that record high.

Ethereum meanwhile, which hit an all-time high of $1,432.88 on January 13, traded around $577 on Tuesday, marking a near 60 percent decline in a few weeks, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.

Third-largest cryptocurrency ripple is off more than 80 percent from its record high of $3.81 it hit earlier this month.

Both ripple and ethereum are higher than a year ago.