The market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has fallen to around $ 138.6bn , amid growing fears over regulatory scrutiny and a “ hard fork ” split for bitcoin cash . Last week's fork saw bitcoin cash cloven into two new, separate virtual currencies, "Bitcoin ABC" and "Bitcoin SV" — short for "Satoshi's Vision" — the latter being the brainchild of controversial entrepreneur Craig Wright, who claims to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. The drop is an 80 % fall from the $ 830bn valuation at the end of 2018 . The collapse follows news the bitcoin cash blockchain would split into two , an event which usually arises from disagreement over how a market should be designed to cope with higher trading volume . Additionally , the US Department of Justice is to investigate whether crypto traders used a token called tether along with the Bitfinex trading platform to prop - up bitcoin ’s value .
The market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has fallen to around $ 138.6bn , amid growing fears over regulatory scrutiny and a “ hard fork ” split for bitcoin cash . The drop is an 80 % fall from the $ 830bn valuation at the end of 2018 . The collapse follows news the bitcoin cash blockchain would split into two , an event which usually arises from disagreement over how a market should be designed to cope with higher trading volume . Additionally , the US Department of Justice is to investigate whether crypto traders used a token called tether along with the Bitfinex trading platform to prop - up bitcoin ’s value .