Cryptocurrency prices tumble and exchange trading falters as snags crop up

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The price of cryptocurrencies plunged and crypto trading was delayed on Tuesday, a day in which El Salvador ran into snags as the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Shares of blockchain-related firms also fell as crypto stocks were hit by trading platform outages. But the major focus was on El Salvador, where the government had to temporarily unplug a digital wallet to cope with demand.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, tumbled more than 17% to $43,000 before paring some losses to trade down 9.20% at $47,140.27. Earlier bitcoin had hit a session high of $52,948.00.