Bitcoin market cap falls below $100 billion for first time since October 2017

Amid a sell-off in the cryptocurrency markets that began Wednesday, Bitcoin's market capitalization fell below the $100 billion mark on Thursday — a level not seen since October 2017.

As of 10:07 a.m. HK/SIN (9:07 p.m. ET Wednesday), the market cap of Bitcoin stood at $99,226,083,662.

That moves came after a major sell-off in the cryptocurrency markets on Wednesday, which continued into Thursday in Asia.

As of 10:10 a.m. HK/SIN (9:10 p.m. ET Wednesday), Bitcoin stood at $5,554.74, according to Coindesk. Bitcoin had been trading comfortably around the $6,400 range for the majority of the fall, a stark contrast from its volatile trading year.

Battle for second spot
Meanwhile, the market capitalizations of Ripple's XRP and Ether jostled as the second-biggest among digital currencies.

It is likely only the second time the two cryptocurrencies have traded near the same level, although it is difficult to state with precision the historical market capitalizations of most digital coins.
As of 10:12 a.m. HK/SIN (9:12 p.m. ET Wednesday), Ether had a higher market cap of $18,646,767,074, compared with XRP's $18,590,683,419, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

This was corroborated by data from Coindesk as of 10:14 a.m. HK/SIN (9:14 p.m. ET Wednesday), which showed XRP having a higher market cap of $18.15 billion, versus Ether's $18.14 billion.

The aggregate cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by $15 billion over 24 hours Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

As of 10:14 a.m. HK/SIN (9:14 p.m. ET Wednesday), the total cryptocurrency market capitalization was at $186,657,686,403, down more than 76 percent from its highs earlier in 2018.