Crypto wipeout deepens as Ether leads declines

The cryptocurrency bear market plumbed a fresh 10-month low, led by a tumble in Bitcoin’s biggest rival. Ether slumped 9.5 percent from its level at 5 p.m. New York time on Friday, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Bitcoin lost 2.5 percent, while the market capitalization of digital assets tracked by CoinMarketCap.com shrank to USD197 billion, down about $640 billion from its January peak. Cryptocurrencies have declined for five of the past six weeks amid concern that a broader adoption of digital assets will take longer than some had anticipated. That worry was underscored over the weekend after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily suspended trading in two securities linked to cryptocurrencies and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin told Bloomberg that the days of explosive growth in the blockchain industry have likely come and gone. Ether has tumbled faster than Bitcoin in recent months on concern that blockchain-related firms are cashing out of the second-biggest cryptocurrency.