Red Tide: Double-Digit Losses Sweep Crypto Asset Market

Bitcoin has dropped 16 percent over the same period to 10-week lows below $8,000, and is heading towards its worst weekly loss since April 2013.

The cryptocurrency suffered a 30-percent drop in January and is down 45 percent on a year-to-date basis.

The cryptocurrency had looked relatively resilient earlier this week, reportedly due to institutional capital flows and Venezuela's decision to presale petro cryptocurrency on the ethereum platform.

Ripple's XRP token ranks third on the list of losers with a 35 percent drop.

The cryptocurrency has now fallen to $0.635 - its lowest level since Dec. 15.

That follows XRP's bad start to the year, with a 49 percent fall during January.

As seen in the graph, IOTA, NEO, EOS and litecoin have all also posted losses greater than 20 percent.

Overall, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies taken together has dropped more than $100 billion, to below $400 billion for the first time in 2018.

Further down the chart, striking a rare positive note amid the gloom and doom, a gold-backed token named DigixDAO stands out after having posted 30 percent gains.

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.