The last day has been a troubling time for cryptocurrency holders, with the majority of cryptocurrencies seeing declines totaling more than $10 billion in less than 24 hours. Overall, the entire market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has fallen by around 5%—which is the second-largest drop in less than a month.
As it stands, all cryptocurrencies in the top 30 by market capitalization are in the red, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and XRP down between 4-5% each. Further down the list, other cryptocurrencies are experiencing even more striking losses, with Litecoin (LTC) and EOS losing 5.2% and 7.5% respectively, while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are performing particularly poorly, having lost 8.2% and 9.2% respectively since yesterday.
These losses come off the back of almost three weeks of decline for the biggest cryptocurrencies.
The recent turn of events appears to be directly related to recent statements by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who clarified that his earlier comments on blockchain were misinterpreted. He then reiterated that cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities that facilitate fraud and Ponzi operations. Although President Xi Jinping believes in the future potential of blockchain technology, he does not appear to believe in public cryptocurrencies—though China is expected to release its own state-backed digital Yuan later next year.