No bitcoin bounce back

Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, hasn't bounced back after last week's price tumble and is trading for around US$14,000 ($19,900).

After testing the US$20,000 milestone on December 17, bitcoin spent last week in decline before suddenly crashing on Friday, bottoming out at under US$11,000, according to research site CoinDesk.

That brought bitcoin's market capitalisation — the price multiplied by the number of coins in circulation — from about US$330 billion to a low of US$186b.

And it's not just bitcoin. Hundreds of billions of dollars was wiped off the value of all cryptocurrencies last week, including ethereum, ripple, litecoin and even bitcoin cash.

Although it recovered from some of the lost ground, it is still trading at levels seen on Friday afternoon.

Sydney bitcoin investor said on the weekend that he was sticking with the digital currency.

"I was there during the 2013 crash, so unless it drops more than 95 per cent again [I'm] not really fussed," Sydney investor Justin Zhu said. "I actually completely forgot about my bitcoin until someone told me it went over US$1,000 ($1,423) again earlier this year."

The 31-year-old said he had stopped looking at the prices. "A correction is pretty healthy overall, I think," he said.

"There are just a lot of basic issues like transfer time [and] fees that will hopefully be fixed, along with the civil war situation between bitcoin and bitcoin cash that needs to be addressed first."