Pretty much overnight, bitcoins 2021 growth has been completely undone. A sudden crypto crash is seeing investors lose millions, as bitcoin alone is down 45 percent compared to just two months ago.
Ethereum has also taken a huge hit, down a staggering 40 percent from the end of December. This translates to huge losses to anyone who invested in the cryptocurrencies at their recent peaks in November, yet comes at a time of increased awareness following the rise of NFTs.
#CryptoCrash had been trended on Twitter overnight, with many mourning their huge losses as a result of the dip. According to tracking site Coinbase, the market is facing an average drop of 10 percent, which will be felt by hundreds of thousands of investors.
At the time of writing, the value of bitcoin sits at £25,109 and ethereum at £1898. The value has been up and down for the past 24 hours, although it seems to have safely recovered from its lowest dip.
This news comes after weeks of bad press for NFTs, which are typically bought with cryptocurrency, as the entertainment industry rushes to jump on the bandwagon. The gaming world has been no exception, with Ubisoft, Square Enix and Konami among its early enthusiast. However, this sudden wave of attention has raised awareness about its many failings, as the industry is fraught with art theft. Content creators are even seeing their own likeness and social media platforms stolen and sole as NFTs without their knowledge, as bot accounts seem to be running the marketplace.
Theft isn't the only issue found in the NFT and crypto space. Large scale NFT projects have also been revealed to be scams, with one of the most recent being a huge sale of 3,333 fakes. The scammer managed to pocket $150,000 from one Discord server using this trick. Before that, the developer of an NFT fighting game ran off with $2.7 million, not delivering on the game and leaving investors with some really ugly avatars.