Bitcoin Drops Below $8K Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off

The price of bitcoin is down to start the day, dropping below $8,000 during early-hours trading on Thursday according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

At press time, the price of bitcoin is roughly $7,811.22 across global exchanges, a figure that represents a decline of over $300 from the day's open, and the lowest price observed on the index since Feb. 11, when the BPI hit a low of $7,845.13.

The market development highlights the continued market weakness seen this week, as evidenced by bitcoin's slide toward $8,000 over the course of Wednesday's session.

Still, other major cryptocurrencies are also seeing losses as well, including ethereum and its ether token, which slid below $600 for the first time since mid-February. According to CoinDesk data, the price of ether is trading at $588.32, a decline of about 4 percent since the open.

Ripple's XRP token is down today as well, hitting $0.65 as of press time after trading above $0.70 for much of the day.

Data from OnChainFX reveals that all of the top-20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have fallen in excess of 10 percent in the past 24 hours, with many seeing declines of 15 percent or more. Among those, cardano, vechain, iota, XEM, lisk, NEO gas and icon are all down over 20 percent within that period.

According to CoinMarketCap.com, the collective market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is at its lowest point since February 6.

Falling roller coaster image via Shutterstock