Bearish Crypto Markets See BTC Falling Below $6,500, ETH Down Under $500

Bitcoin has taken an over 11 percent negative hit, trading around $6,449 to press time, bringing its monthly losses to almost 25 percent.

As of press time, Coinmarketcap data indicates 24-hour BTC trading volumes of $4.8 bln, up from their intra-weekly low of $3.8 bln.

The coin has broken below its recent round figure low of $500, losing over 30 percent of its value in the last month.

Of the top ten coins, IOTA has suffered the heftiest losses, falling over 13 percent in the 24-hour period, trading at around $1.21 to press time.

Tether is just about stemming losses to see a negligible percentage point change over the 24-hour period, with a negative fluctuation of 0.06 percent as of press time.

Total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies is around $274 bln to press time, down from their close to half-a-trln figure in early May.The markets' grim performance earlier this week drew considerable attention from international mainstream media, including Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the Guardian, who all attributed crypto losses to news of the hack of minor South Korean crypto exchange Coinrail over the weekend.

While short-term factors affecting the bearish market remain hard to pinpoint, news of a minor exchange hack is an unlikely explanation for significant FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Notably, this week has seen a wave of crypto-regulatory news, including reports that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been demanding extensive trading data from major U.S. crypto exchanges to investigate whether price manipulation might be compromising prices in Bitcoin futures markets.

The Canadian government has also this week released an official draft of new regulations for crypto exchanges that seek to address a "Number of deficiencies" outlined by the Financial Action Task Force.

Yesterday, further news from the FATF revealed that the international watchdog will start developing binding rules for crypto exchanges in June, as an upgrade to the non-binding resolutions which were adopted by the FATF in June 2015.