Bitcoin is now trading at under $13000

It looks like it’s about to happen. After weeks and weeks in which it kept growing, Bitcoin started losing territory, alongside other major cryptocurrencies. This Thursday evening, New York time, it started to plunge, trading now at $13,718.80.

Bitcoin even managed to record a 20 percent plunge, reaching $12,504 at one moment, according to CNBC, citing reports from CoinDesk. Basically, it was down more than $3,000 from $15,820, the value at which it was trading yesterday morning. However, the currency managed to recover slightly, reaching $13,545, at 4:09 a.m., ET.

However, despite this surprising and sharp drop, the currency is still up more than 1300 percent in 2017.

The cause is not yet clear

“The vast majority of long term holders of bitcoin are still way in the money and have shown no sign of cashing out,” said Michael Jackson, partner at venture capital firm Mangrove Capital Partners.

“We see the exit of short term speculators and we have seen it before. The fundamentals are still in place and there is no reason why the bitcoin ecosystem should not continue to develop,” Mr. Jackson added.

A volatile week for all coins

These recent values don’t come as a surprise since this entire week was very volatile for all cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Cash, for example, reached record highs, trading at more than $4,000 on Wednesday, after Coinbase made it possible to buy it and sell it.

Still, both Bitcoin and its offshoot fell this Thursday, increased losses being registered in the evening.

Ethereum had a bad week as well, trading at $655, while lite coin fell 27 percent to $241. However, there’s an explanation behind the price of the latter, as founder Charlie Lee announced that he sold all his coins, planning to dedicate more time to promoting the coin.

Ripple, on the other side, had a few good days, trading higher on Friday morning and managing to surpass the psychological milestone of $1, earlier on Thursday. 2017 was also incredible for XRP, after it went up with a whooping 19,500 percent.