Bitcoin set to register biggest monthly decline in over 7 years

Biggest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 7.6% to $3,867 on Friday, bringing its monthly loss to about 37%

Bitcoin is poised to register its biggest monthly decline in more than seven years as investors reevaluate the prospects of digital money following last year’s euphoria.

The biggest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 7.6 percent to $3,867 on Friday, bringing its monthly loss to about 37 percent. That’s the steepest drop since August 2011, when the token tumbled 39 percent to $8.20. Bitcoin surged to a record $19,511 in December 2017.

“It’s been a horrible bear market in tokens,” Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. founder Michael Novogratz said Friday during a conference call recapping his company’s third-quarter results.

Other leading digital currencies extended their slide. Ether declined about 2 percent to $112, bringing its monthly loss to 43 percent. XRP slumped 4.5 percent to 36 cents, pushing its monthly loss to 21 percent.

“Part of the sell-off is because, I think, the SEC got tough on a few fraudulent ICOs," Novogratz said. “People got very nervous.”