Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto space is seeing red in a major way today.

(Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/)

Unlike in other cases recently though, it isn't entirely clear what is causing the selling.

My guess would be that this is a big part of it:

https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-gold-hit-by-double-spend-attack-exchanges-lose-millions/

This marks 3 coins in the past week or so that have been manipulated and taken advantage of by bad actors.

While the blockchains themselves weren't exactly hacked, the end result might as well have been the same.

People seeing how easily this could happen are likely throwing in the towel on cryptocurrencies.

Confidence is a tricky thing in financial markets.

Then there was also this playing out in the background:

https://themerkle.com/bitfinex-aims-to-eliminate-tax-evasion-by-cooperating-with-the-british-virgin-islands/

Bitfinex was forced to asked some of their customers for identification which can then be used by local governments to enforce taxes on cryptocurrency gains.

As you can imagine, many in the bitfinex community that had enjoyed staying anonymous were not at all happy about this development and have been moving their holdings off the exchange, likely contributing to the recent selling.

Then you can't ignore the fact that risky assets globally are being sold currently.

Especially in Asia.

Check this out:

(Source: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-gold-hit-double-spend-155222119.html)

As you can see, Asian stock markets are down significantly as well.

With some down nearly 2% on the day.

Steem had been outperforming in the past few days.

Even today it wasn't down nearly as much as everything else:

(Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/)

Though, now it is quickly catching up to everything else.

Today is a terrible day to be long any cryptocurrency. The question now becomes whether this is a one off event or likely the beginning of a much bigger slide?

I wish I had the answer to that question...

Stay informed my friends.

Follow me: @jrcornel