Bitcoin mania might be over?

The price of bitcoin is plunging, amid fears that the cryptocurrency mania that gripped the world in recent weeks is over.

Over December, the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies surged to record highs, leading many people to attempt to make their own money. But the value is now plunging, apparently amid fears that the market is being manipulated, that currency could be stolen through heists, and that countries around the world are about to bring in regulations on how bitcoin can be used.

Those worries have led bitcoin to plunge nearly 13 per cent overnight. That brings it to a nearly 25 per cent fall over the last week, and a drop of 44 per cent over the last month.

Other crytocurrencies are being hurt even more. Ripple, the third largest digital currency, has dropped 30 per cent in recent hours, and every other major cryptocurrency has done the same, according to the site CoinMarketCap.

In a longer term context, bitcoin is still surging. It is still up 729 per cent over the last year, and the current prices were last seen in November, before the price unexpectedly surged over December.

But the plunge is still leaving many people concerned that the bitcoin mania that led to a flurry of buyers in December is now coming to an end. Now is the first time that the price has dropped beneath where it was at the end of November, when that bubble began to inflate.