A bitcoin sell-off that began at the beginning of the week is gaining momentum, with the cryptocurrency losing a third of its value overnight. On Friday afternoon, the average trading price for the cryptocurrency across coin exchanges monitored by Bloomberg was $13,608 US, a drop of roughly $2,000 or 20 per cent from where it was on Thursday. Earlier, the price was even lower, dipping at one point to barely above $11,000 US, or a sell-off of roughly 35 per cent in 24 hours. In mid-November, bitcoin was trading at less than $6,000 US. "Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly," said Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore.

Source: CBC News December 22, 2017 13:55 UTC