Cryptocurrencies continue to slide

Latest plunge adds to investor misery.

Cryptocurrency investments that were minting millionaires back in December are now an increasing source of misery.

Blame the pain on periodic sell-offs, such as the one in the past 24 hours that has wiped out $50 billion of value in bitcoin and other digital currencies.

A crackdown by regulators has hit this fledgling area of investment in recent months, as some authorities around the world try to tame what they see as a Wild West-type market.

More recently, two other events have darkened the investment outlook for digital currencies: Google decided to ban cryptocurrency-related advertising, and there has been massive selling by a trustee of the collapsed Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.

“Unfortunately, the future of crypto is still quite foggy,” Arnaud Masset, a market analyst at Swissquote Bank, told USA TODAY. “The honeymoon is over, and it is time to face reality.”

All 10 of the biggest cryptocurrencies measured by market value have suffered price declines in the past 24 hours, with losses ranging from 4% to

15%, according to coinmarketcap.com. That slide has slashed the market value of all the world’s 1,565 digital currencies by $50 billion as of 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday. The total value of the market is now $322.9 billion, down from $372.9 billion Wednesday and less than half the total value at the peak in mid-December 2017.

Bitcoin, the world’s best-known and most valuable cryptocurrency, has slid 6.5% in the past 24 hours to

$8,118.80 a coin, nearly 60% below its peak of roughly $19,500 in mid-December 2017.

Investors, excited by bitcoin’s nearly

1,400% gain last year, flooded into this volatile investing space in search of big gains. Critics warn that the huge rally in

2017 is a sign of a classic speculative bubble that will eventually burst.

Factors driving down the price for cryptocurrency investments:

❚ Regulatory scrutiny: The latest setback came recently when the Securities and Exchange Commission warned that many of the online cryptocurrency trading platforms might be “potentially unlawful.” Wall Street’s so-called “top cop” also stressed that investors might have gotten the “misimpression” that these online trading platforms are registered with and regulated by the SEC, “when they are not.”

❚ Ad bans: Google, this week, joined Facebook in banning all cryptocurrency-related ads. The ban, which goes into effect in June, includes advertisements for initial coin offerings, digital wallets and investment advice. Protecting consumers from fraud was cited by Google as the main reason for the ban.

❚ Forced selling: The trustee of Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014 after

850,000 Bitcoins went missing, is in the process of selling large amounts of Bitcoin to pay back creditors. And that temporary forced selling is weighing on the price of the digital currency.

Bitcoin bulls say the wild price swings are normal and that Bitcoin and other cryptos will rise again.