Why Bitcoin is crashing?

Bitcoin crashes towards $11,000 during 'cryptocurrency bloodbath'
The 10 biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation were falling Tuesday morning.
Declining Japanese and South Korean trading volumes have been blamed for spooking the market.
Cryptocurrencies surged in 2017 but have been marked by volatility this month.
Nevertheless, the independent financial adviser deVere Group plans to launch a crypto app.

LONDON — The 10 biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation were plunging Tuesday morning, with all suffering double-digit percentage losses.

Bitcoin fell as much as 16% in early trade, falling through both $13,000 and $12,000 levels, but has recovered slightly. The decline appears to have spooked the market, with other coins selling off at the same time.

Fawad Razaqzada, a market analyst with Forex.com, described the sell-off as a "cryptocurrency bloodbath" but said: "Suggestions that this is the start of the demise of cryptos is very premature."

Here's the scoreboard as of 2.o0 p.m. GMT (9.00 a.m. ET), per Markets Insider:

Bitcoin is down 15% against the dollar to $11,586.29;
Ethereum is down 17% against the dollar to $1,050.46;
Ripple is down 21% to $1.30;
Bitcoin Cash is down 21% to $1,877.15;
Cardano is down 22% to $0.62;
Litecoin is down 15% to $195.43;
Neo is down 24% to $141.90;
Nem is down 26% to $1.08;
Stellar is down 24% to $0.46;
IOTA is down 19% to $2.91.
Cryptocurrencies have experienced a volatile start to 2018 after a huge rally last year.

Increased regulatory scrutiny from South Korea has dampened sentiment in the sector. Mati Greenspan, an analyst at the trading platform eToro, said declining volumes from Japan and South Korea appeared to be behind Tuesday morning's sell-off.

Crypto prices in these markets typically carry a premium, which pushes up average prices globally. Traders in these Asian markets are generally buyers too, meaning a tail-off in activity could create a big mismatch in buyers and sellers.

"The volumes have been declining steadily both in Japan and South Korea over the last few days," Greenspan told Business Insider. "This morning, the combined volume from these two top cryptotrading countries dropped below 30%. Looks like they're tired of overpaying for cryptos and waiting for the market to even out."