The value of bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies crashed on 19 May as the volume of investors piling in or rushing to sell their holdings forced online exchanges into severe outages.

Bitcoin plunged more than 30% to lows not seen since the first days of January, falling past the $30,000 mark amid the crash. Ether fell by a similar margin, while smaller coins such as stellar, polkadot and dogecoin took hits of 40% or more.