A visual representation of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin on November 20, 2018 in London, England. Jordan Mansfield | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Bitcoin prices plummeted less than a day after the world's largest cryptocurrency traded at levels above $8,000. As of 12:59 a.m. ET Friday, the price of bitcoin was at $7,215.79 apiece, according to data from Coindesk — a 10.1% drop in the last 24 hours. Similar losses were seen in other major cryptocurrencies over the same period. The price of Ethereum fell 7.97% to $241.33, while XRP plunged 15.4% to $0.399378.

In the 24 hours from 12:42 a.m. ET Friday, data from Coinmarketcap.com showed the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency industry falling more than 8%, with more than $21 billion wiped out in that time period. "This last drop was likely caused by a combination of profit-taking and also algorithmic trading compounding the swift fall," said Jehan Chu, co-founder of Kenetic Capital. "We can expect these types of steep rises and drops to continue for some time until institutional investors grow market volume."