Cryptocurrencies Falter as Bitcoin Tumbles Toward $5,000 Level. Bitcoin touched an October 2017 low and was trading at $5,235.17 at 8:50 a.m.

in London, according to consolidated Bloomberg pricing. Rival coins including

Ether and Litecoin also retreated, as the wider Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index

fell as much as 6.9 percent to a one year-low on a closing basis. XRP, the

token associated with Ripple, was the lone gainer among major digital

currencies. Volatility has returned to cryptocurrencies, with the largest

tokens shedding billions in market value since the hard fork of Bitcoin Cash

last week, after two software-development factions failed to agree on a way to

upgrade the offshoot of the original Bitcoin, leading to a computing power

arms race. Read about how the Bitcoin Cash clash is costing investors

billions. The cryptocurrency industry has now lost more than $660 billion in

value from a January peak, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. Bitcoin

is down more than 70 percent from its December 2017 high, the data show.

Thomas J. Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors and a long-time

crypto bull, slashed his year-end price target for Bitcoin to $15,000 from

$25,000. The target is based on a fair value multiple of 2.2 times the

breakeven cost of mining, which the firm pegs at $7,000, according to a report

last week. "Crypto-specific events have led to greater uncertainty in the

crypto market, including the contentious hard fork for Bitcoin Cash," Lee said

in the note. Bitcoin's break below $6,000 "has lead to a renewed wave of

pessimism," he said. DM