At the time of writing BTC was down 28 percent, with Ethereum down 40 percent and Dogecoin down 43 percent. It comes as China signalled a cryptocurrency crackdown. Bitcoin has also been under pressure following a series of tweets from Tesla boss Elon Musk.
Chinese regulators on Tuesday issued a ban on the nation's finance companies and institutions from providing services concerned with cryptocurrency transactions.
The bodies also cautioned against speculative trading on the digital currencies.
The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has been badly impacted by the action.
BTC was already under pressure following a series of tweets from Mr Musk who last week made a U-turn on Tesla accepting Bitcoin as payment.
But the news from China sent it as low as $36,250 (£25,582).
The cryptocurrency has tumbled 40 percent from a record high of $64,895 (£45,806) hit on April 14.
It is also heading for its first monthly decline since November 2018.
Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, plunged by 28 percent to $2,426 (£1,711).
It brings losses in the week since it hit a record high on May 12 to 40 percent.
The meme-based dogecoin also fell in value and declined by almost 30 percent earlier today, according to market tracker Coingecko.
Shares in the crypto exchange Coinbase dropped by five percent in pre-market trading.
Ulrik Lykke, executive director at crypto hedge fund ARK36, said: “The crypto markets are currently processing a cascade of news that fuel the bear case for price development.
"News like this can get a lot of traction and easily stir market sentiment but they often prove of little significance in the long term.”
The recent selloff in Bitcoin and other digital currencies has sent market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies to $1.7 trillion (£1.2 trillion).
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“China’s restrictions on cryptocurrencies are expanding and that has many investors nervous that panic-selling will continue.
“Bitcoin’s crash approached the $30,000 level and that has a lot of the new institutional money see all their profit go up in smoke.
“This looks like your typical flash crash, but there seems to be some hesitancy in getting back in.”
Express.co.uk does not give financial advice. The journalists who worked on this article do not own cryptocurrency.
(Additional reporting by Sam Stevenson)
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