The cryptocurrency market has been huge news this week as the plummeting prices got everyone talking. But, just why did the market fall so fast?

The most obvious explanation for the crash in prices was China and South Korea\'s regulation announcement, which caused numerous investors to panic. China had previously caused a similar reaction in 2013 when payment companies were halted from using bitcoin exchanges by the People\'s Bank of China.

Secondly, it is thought that a demographic shift of people investing is intensifying the price loss. The digital currency market is increasingly being filled with sophisticated and technical traders, and whilst this could be seen as a beneficial development, for novice traders, the use of complex tools could have an effect on the price.

Furthermore, the amplified interest in the market has also put an increased strain on the groundwork. CEO of Bitstamp, Nejc Kodric, explained that numerous companies are experiencing new users, and this has ultimately had a negative effect. Many crypto exchanges like Bitfinex have even stopped allowing new users to register for periods of time. Likewise, system updates have been annoying users of Kraken, the U.S. based crypto exchange, taking 2 days instead of the allocated 2 hours and meaning trading was halted.