December 19th saw Bitcoin take a tumble. Having reached an all-time record high, the price of a bitcoin fell by more than $1,800, which is a 15% drop.

Trading opened at $18,960.52 and momentarily reached above the $19,000 level. However, by 11:00 UTC, the value of a single bitcoin had fallen below $18,000. What followed was the volatility which has been seen in the past after large increases in value, with the cryptocurrency rapidly recovering, before plunging below $18,000. Further falls later in the day pushed the currency towards $17,000 on some exchanges.

The day’s trading activity now brings bitcoin back into a price range last seen on Saturday 16th, the day before CME Group launched its bitcoin futures market. Interestingly, continuing a developing trend, alternative cryptocurrencies, such as REP and ether, made significant gains as the price of bitcoin fell.

However, investors should not panic. These kinds of price fluctuations have been seen before in the bitcoin market, and are to be expected after large increases in market cap, as investors sell bitcoin in order to cash in on price gains. Despite the fall in value, the market cap is still over $600 billion, which means that the story of bitcoin is far from over.