It’s really hard to remember the last time the cryptomarket had a bad first month of the year. In the past 48 hours, more than $5 billion have been shaved off from the total market capitalization of digital currencies.
Ethereum and Zcash were one of the biggest losers, losing almost 10% of their respective prices. It seems most crypto enthusiasts are blaming the recent cancellation of the ETH Constatinople hard fork for the price drop.
Due to the loss of interest from investors, Chinese Bitcoin miners have been forced to abandon shipments to avoid making more losses. According to a Chinese miner who has over 7,000 mining units, he said he had to bring the price down but no one was interested.
The miner had to close the shop and sell all the equipments. According to reports, huge crypto mining firms such as Bitmain are also struggling to stay afloat and have even laid off some of its staff.
However, going down South, an Australian bitcoin ATM is busy raking in over $360,000 in weekly turnover, which is over 500,000 AUD. The Australian Bitcoin ATM provider, Auscoin has 31 ATM machines spread throughout Australia and plans to increase the number to 1,200 machines, according to Crypto Digest.
In an interview with Auscoin’s founder, Sam Karagiozis, “there’s still a market for cryptocurrencies despite the slump in prices”, he said when asked about the high turnover. Auscoin made over $2 million in revenue in 2018 after failing to hit its target of $20 million.
