Ethereum is under pressure on Monday, trading down 18.55%, or $55, near $241. The selling comes despite a late Friday blog post from GDAX – an exchange for cryptocurrencies like ethereum and bitcoin – promising that victims of last Wednesday’s flash-crash will be made whole. Ethereum tumbled from $296 to $0.10 in a matter of minutes before recouping those losses. GDAX had initially told customers would not receive a refund but reversed course a few days later.
Another possible catalyst for the selling could be a hoax circulated over the weekend that co-founder Vitalik Buterin had died. Vitalik responded by posting a tongue-in-cheek selfie on Twitter with a hash code from a recent Ethereum block – proof that he was still alive.
Even with Monday’s selling, Ethereum is still up 2,890% in 2017. The cryptocurrency’s rapid rise has drawn the attention of cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee, who on Friday announced his company would begin mining for Ethereum.