Bitcoin rival ethereum plunged Monday despite a major exchange's efforts to shore up confidence by announcing a credit for customers who lost money during last week's flash crash.
Ethereum, also known as ether, traded 20.9% lower at $239.63 Monday afternoon.
Last Wednesday, ethereum briefly plunged in a flash crash from above $300 to 10 cents on Coinbase's GDAX exchange. On Friday, the exchange said it would credit customers who "experienced a margin call or stop loss order" on GDAX during the flash crash.
GDAX reported Monday afternoon, a temporary halt in trading for all products, which was resolved within an hour.
Ethereum is still up about 2% for June, and 2,500% for the year. At its peak, ethereum had surged more than 4,000% for the year.
An unsubstantiated rumor Sunday that ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin had died also reportedly hit ethereum's price for a brief period. Ethereum fell from around $329 to a low of $284 Sunday before recovering. Buterin tweeted a picture of himself Sunday evening, to dispel the rumor.
Digital currency investors also pointed to the reversal of last week's exuberance stemming from the launch of several ethereum-based projects, which ended up clogging the network. The inability of ethereum to handle the orders raised worries that digital currency may soon face a debate over an upgrade model, similar to a heated controversy over bitcoin's future that has weighed on that currency.
