Major cryptocurrencies plunged on 26 November amid a broad sell-off of risky assets, after a new variant of Covid-19 was detected in South Africa.

Bitcoin fell more than 7% over the past 24 hours, recently trading at $54,162 early in the New York trading day. The cryptocurrency was down more than 20% from its all-time high of $68,990 on 10 November, according to CoinDesk data.