It has been a disappointing 24 hours of trade on cryptocurrency markets with the majority of coins giving back recent gains and dropping lower again.
This has left the entire market with a value of just under US$339.1 billion according to Coin Market Cap, down 2% since this time yesterday.
Here is the state of play on Thursday morning:
The Bitcoin (BTC) price is down 1.2% since this time yesterday to US$7,532.36 per coin, reducing its market capitalisation to just over US$128.6 billion.
The Ethereum (ETH) price has fallen 1.9% over the last 24 hours to US$597.01 per token, leaving Ethereum with a market capitalisation of US$59.6 billion.
The Ripple (XRP) price has shed 1.8% of its value since this time yesterday and is down to 66.5 U.S. cents. The popular alt coin now has a market capitalisation of US$26.1 billion.
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price has dropped almost 3.5% over the last 24 hours to US$1,110.25 per token, reducing the Bitcoin offshoot's market capitalisation down to under US$19.1 billion.
The EOS (EOS) price has been the worst performer amongst the major coins and is down 4% over the period to US$13.53. This leaves EOS with a market capitalisation of US$12.1 billion.
Outside the top five it has been a similar story over the last 24 hours. Litecoin (LTC) is down 1.8%, Cardano (ADA) is off 3.9%, Stellar (XLM) has fallen 0.8%, IOTA (MIOTA) has plunged 5.5%, and TRON (TRX) is 2.9% lower.
Why are the cryptocurrencies sinking lower again?
Recent reports of lower levels of Google searches for cryptocurrencies and a significant slowdown in Bitcoin wallet growth has been weighing heavily on sentiment this week.
In addition to this, a criminal probe into the price manipulation of cryptocurrencies in the United States hasn't helped matters and is likely to put off would-be traders from entering the market and supporting prices.
In light of this, I see little reason to believe that the market is going to go meaningfully higher in the near-term. It may therefore be prudent to stay well clear of cryptocurrencies for the time being and focus on other investment opportunities.
