Bitcoin plummets under $6,000 to a low of the year after months of stability

Yu Chun Christopher Wong | S3studio | Getty Images

A visual representation of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is seen on September 04 2018 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Bitcoin’s moment of relative stability ended abruptly Wednesday.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency hit its lowest level of the year, falling as much as 9 percent to a low of $5,640.36, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin had been trading comfortably around the $6,400 range for the majority of the fall, a stark contrast from its volatile trading year.

Other cryptocurrencies fared even worse on Wednesday. Ether fell as much as 13 percent while XRP, the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dropped 15 percent, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

The rout is likely being spurred by uncertainty around bitcoin cash, according to founder and CEO of BKCM, Brian Kelly.

That cryptocurrency was down 18 percent ahead of a “hard fork” scheduled for November 15. The two digital currencies will split into “Bitcoin ABC,” or core Bitcoin Cash, and “Bitcoin SV,” short for “Satoshi’s Vision.” Bitcoin Cash itself is a result of a fork from bitcoin, after a disagreement on the best way to scale a digital currency.

The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by $15 billion over 24 hours Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The total market cap $85 billion, down more than 70 percent since the start of this year.