Sea of Red: Top 10 Cryptocurrencies See Steep Declines as Market Turns

Just hours after traders reported a shift in strategy, the global cryptocurrency markets appear to be correcting – and fast.

At press time, the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were all in steep periods of decline, with eight seeing declines of more than 10%. Even bitcoin, heralded as the 'safe haven' among available alternatives wasn't immune, dropping 15% at press time as its price retreated to its lowest total since 31st May.

Overall, the market shed roughly $6bn in a span of hours, declining from a combined total of $106bn to a press time total of $99.3bn, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

Taking an even broader look, more than 80 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies had seen more than double-digit declines, with some seeing declines of more than 30%.

Among those most impacted was IOTA, which began listing on exchanges this week and debuted at a $1bn market cap, only to fall more than 40% today. Lesser-known assets including I/O Coin, E-Currency Coin and Vericoin saw over 30% declines.

It wasn't just tokens on so-called infrastructure blockchains, running on their own unique networks, that were affected either.

Digital tokens sold as part of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and running on top of the ethereum blockchain saw big declines, with the tokens powering decentralized prediction market Gnosis and web browser Brave dropping by over 20% at press time.

Both debuted to market enthusiasm, raising $12.5m and $35m in token sales in recent months.

All in all, the development comes hours after traders reported preparing for a correction as the market's recent upward momentum slowed, and weeks after many had begun sounding the alarm that the market had become wildly divorced from fundamentals.

As such, speculation is high that this correction might only be the beginning of more declines.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Brave.

Red bitcoin via Shutterstock