Crypto Market Loses Over $40B In A Week

The crypto market has lost over $40 billion over the last week, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping below $7,000 for the first time since May, a data platform CoinMarketCap shows.

What Happened

The crypto market has been experiencing a downtrend over the last week, with major cryptocurrencies being in the red. Bitcoin has dropped to $6,930, at press time, losing more than 20% in the last seven days. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dropped to $136 Monday morning, the lowest point since April, now settled at $143.

"Hodl?"

Analysts in the crypto space, famous for their "hodl," or not shorting digital assets, philosophy believe that the downtrend might continue.

Peter Brandt, an analyst and author of books on trading, thinks that the BTC price might still go down.

CNBC's Brian Kelly called it "an important low" commenting bitcoin price movement on Friday at FastMoney CNBC. He believes that growth in bitcoin addresses number by 5% over the last 30 days is a good sign and that "the fundamentals are improving on a selloff." 

Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, believes that the price of the leading cryptocurrency will reach $10,000 again and even $100,000, not specifying the time frame for his predictions.

But why?

There are different speculations over the reasons behind the recent fall. Bloomberg reported Monday that China's recent decision on cryptocurrency operations might be the cause of the downtrend.

Oliver Renick, Lead Anchor at TD Ameritrade Network, thinks that prices are down because people are starting to realize they "don't need bitcoin."

But historically, as Director of Research at a crypto publication the Block, Larry Cermak pointed out, that price spikes in the crypto space are "not related to any particular event or trend."