The cryptocurrency market is seeing a massive sell-off order following the decision by the Donald Trump administration to impose a travel restriction on European traveling to the United States of America.
Trump in a nationwide address on Wednesday, said the ban would not apply to the UK and would begin on Friday at midnight, March 13 and last for 30 days.
“The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe,” he said.
The announcement has since sent ripples across the global economy including the cryptocurrency market. The price of Bitcoin dropped by as much as N5,790 (about 20%) on Thursday at 12 noon according to a chart from the Coindesk Index. It is the lowest since May 2019.
It was all red marks across the market, as prices of altcoins like Ethereum, XRP and Bitcoin Cash.
Ether the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap suffered a record 33 percent or roughly $60. The cryptocurrency dropped from about $200 to $132. Ether volume fell to $253.7 million.
“The announcement that the US is banning all travel from Europe has led to losses across all the main altcoins, as the full impact of the coronavirus becomes clear,” Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of Luno told BusinessDay via email.
The decline in the market isn’t the first time this year. Since hitting $10,000 on February 19, the market has gone on a steady downward slide. As of press time, prices have rebounded to $6,103.51.
Generally, the spread of coronavirus has wreaked havoc on economies across the world. US stocks plunged by 8.2 percent on Thursday while the Nigerian Naira depreciated further trading at N410 against the dollar for the first time in many years. Gold, another safe-haven asset, was down more than 1% Thursday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic as the virus claimed more than 4,600 lives on Thursday. Over 126,000 people are infected globally and about 68,000 victims have recovered according to John Hopkins University which is tracking the story.
“We do still believe that cryptocurrencies will find buyers coming back in for them as investors will want to be in assets which are uncorrelated to the main markets,” Swanepoel said.
