The cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped to $283 billion on Tuesday From a peak of $830 billion at the start of January.
Bitcoin's (TIKER: BTC.EXANTE) market capitalization slid drastically to around $104 billion against $139 billion a day before when the price had closed near $7,000, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
Bitcoin prices plunged drastically on Tuesday as it fell over 22% to trade near $6,000 on most cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide.
Elsewhere on the cryptocurrency market, Ethereum (TIKER: ETH/USD.BITFINEX) is down 28.51% to $586, Litecoin (TIKER: LTC/USD.BITFINEX) is down 23.90% to $109, Bitcoin Cash (TIKER: BCH.EXANTE) is down 27.44% to $7800, Ripple is down 23.05% to $0.61.
The latest sell-off follows reports in the last week that have raised worries about increased regulation, hackers and potential price manipulation at a major cryptocurrency exchange.
On Monday the British Lllyds Bank joined J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup to ban cryptocurrency purchases by their credit card customers.
Reports from China say the authorities will increase efforts to restrict virtual currency trading platforms, especially those that may have moved overseas following Beijing's ban on initial coin offerings in September.