Bitcoin suddenly crashes below $19K after all-time high sparks wild volatility

Bitcoin (BTC) continued an intense day of volatility on Dec. 1, hitting lows of $18,400 just over an hour after challenging $20,000 and breaking a new all-time high.

Bitcoin sheds $1,600 in under 2 hours

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as it delivered some of its most unpredictable moves in history.

At press time, the pair was moving in a range roughly bordered by $18,500 and $19,000, with conditions changing by the minute.

Just an hour previously, an attempt to crack $20,000 resulted in a firm rejection along with a $1,000 dive to $19,000 in under ten minutes.

The move mimics Bitcoin's behavior from last week, during which an initial attempt to break $19,500 also sparked major problems.

As reported on Monday, 

Ether price disappoints at Ethereum 2.0 launch

Meanwhile, volatility spilled over to altcoins, with Ether (ETH) abruptly losing $600 to trade closer to $575 at press time, thus reversing the previous day’s gains.

The performance puts a dampener on the launch of Ethereum 2.0, Ether’s parent network’s long-awaited protocol upgrade.