(Bloomberg) Bitcoin tumbled below $6,000 for the first time since August and reached the lowest level in over a year, breaking the recent stretch of tranquility exhibited by the notoriously volatile digital alternative to cash.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 11%, with most of the loss coming within a half hour window. Other digital coins slumped, with smaller rivals Ether, Litecoin and XRP dropping more than 17%.
Bitcoin Cash tumbled as much as 21% as the Bitcoin offshoot faces its own split.
When it split off a year ago, Bitcoin Cash jump-started the forking craze in which dozens of software-development teams sought to create money out of thin air by tweaking the original computer code and releasing coins with “Bitcoin” in their names.
A group headed by Craig Wright is expected to take control tomorrow of the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency following a software upgrade.
A rival faction that disagrees on how to best expand has been trying to persuade the community of computer operators running the network to adopt their version.
About 70% of the so-called miners that process the transactions that keep the network afloat are signaling they support the version backed by Wright’s allies, according to crypto data tracker Coin Dance.
