The cryptocurrency markets have had a rocky ride this Wednesday, as the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies sharply declined by $12 billion in a mere hour. Moreover, CoinMarketCap shows that nearly all the top 100 coins are currently down.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is testing the $7,000 barrier at a current valuation of $7,013, which translates to a 4.89% drop over the past 24 hours in the price of Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is far from the only coin showing losses at the moment.

Ethereum has fallen far beneath the $300 level, currently trading at a comparatively meager $261 – which equates to a price decrease of 9.72% over the past 24 hour period.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently hovering around $224 billion, which is noticeably down from yesterday’s high of $240 billion.

Furthermore, this recent slump in the price of Bitcoin breaks a comparatively long period of bullish market sentiment, with Bitcoin showing a relatively steady price increase during the past 30 days.

In addition to this, the relative market share of Bitcoin has also increased somewhat, as other currencies have been worse hit by this current market decline – with Bitcoin now commanding 54.3% of the cryptocurrency market capitalization, an increase of around one percent.

Major coins such as Bitcoin Cash, EOS, and Ripple have been worse hit by this flash decrease in the cryptocurrency market than Bitcoin – with Bitcoin Cash decreasing by 10.2%, and both EOS and Ripple by around 11%.

It hardly needs stressing that these types of market movements are significant, and well beyond usual daily volatility. However, as of yet, it is unknown what has caused this significant sell-off in virtually all cryptocurrencies.

One possibility could be a fresh report from Business Insider that Goldman Sachs has suspended its plans to open a Bitcoin trading desk – although this report also states that Goldman Sachs will focus on driving Wall Street investments in crypto, meaning the effects of such a decision should be local to Bitcoin.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin is actually one of the better performing cryptocurrencies during this ongoing market plunge, as many coins have seen decreases by around ten percent.

It remains to be seen how this situation develops as the markets stabilize. At the moment, however, there does not seem to be a single clear trigger for this plunge in the price of most cryptocurrencies.

Some observers have suggested that this decline might merely be the result of the market gains we’ve seen for the better part of the last week. However, the exact reason is currently anyone’s guess.

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