Bitcoin had topped $62,700 earlier in the day, but recently was down 6.5% from 24 hours earlier. Amid the rout, it got as low as $58,240, the lowest price since Aug. 19. Ether traded as high as $2,700 earlier Wednesday, but recently fetched less than $2,500.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the sell-off. The sudden downturn triggered $313 million in liquidations of leveraged crypto derivatives positions over the past 24 hours, the biggest washout since Aug. 5 crash,token was actually up nearly 5% over the past 24 hours, after falling precipitously on the news that Telegram founder Pavel Durov had been arrested in France on various charges.