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Those who bought cryptocurrency at the start of 2017 likely felt pretty savvy in December. But if you bought late last year, that’s certainly not the case today.
The entire crypto market has lost roughly 65 percent of its value as of Thursday but some coins have fared worse than others.
Here’s where you’d stand if you invested $1,000 in the top five coins at the height of their hype:
Bitcoin, the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency has held up better than others. It’s down more than 54 percent this year, and was trading around $6,400 Thursday. The cryptocurrency became a household name as it hit a high near $20,000 on December 16, 2017.
- If you put $1,000 into bitcoin on that day, you would have lost about $650, with $350 left in it today.
The world’s second largest cryptocurrency has nosedived 70 percent this year, and fell 15 percent this week alone. Ether is the name of the cryptocurrency but it’s closely associated to the popular Ethereum blockchain. Unlike bitcoin, which gives access to a global financial network, ether gives you access to a computer network. Investors saw an opportunity in its use case for building applications but that hype has faded significantly this year.
- If you put $1,000 in ether at its high in January, you would have lost $836.
Bitcoin Cash is an offshoot of the original bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was born last August out of a “fork,” by a group of developers who were frustrated with some technology issues behind bitcoin, including “scalability.” Bitcoin Cash increased the size of the blocks, meaning more transactions could happen per second.
- If you put $1,000 in bitcoin cash at the high in December, you would have lost $858 by September of this year.
Litecoin would have been a great investment if you got in early — it was up 8,000 percent at one point last year. The cryptocurrency was inspired and technically, is almost identical to bitcoin but proponents say transactions are faster and cheaper.
- If you bet $1,000 on Litecoin at its high in December, you would have lost $833 as of Thursday. The cryptocurrency is now trading around $50 after topping $330 late last year.
Often mistakenly called “Ripple,” XRP has fared the worst of the top cryptocurrencies. It’s trading around 30 cents Thursday after climbing to $3.77 in January.
Ripple is a fintech company that focuses on global payments, and holds the majority of XRP the cryptocurrency. XRP is a cryptocurrency, independent of the company, that can be used on Ripple’s platforms.
- If you invested $1,000 in XRP at its high earlier this year, you would have lost the vast majority of that investment — $920.