Many cryptocurrencies have lost 90 percent of their value since January

It's been a few months now—since Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies peaked earlier this year—that graphics cards have been hard to come by. If they're scarce again soon, it won't be due to mining, but rather demand for Nvidia's brand new RTX 2000 series cards. Recent news has reflected just how far cryptocurrencies have fallen since their peak, and what the cost of that has been for many investors. As The Motley Fool lays out, the biggest currencies have lost as much as 93 percent of their peak value compared to earlier this year.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has fared the best: it's down 68 percent from its peak at around $20,000 in December. As of today, Bitcoin's value is close to $6500, which is still higher than where it was in August 2017: under $5000. Other popular coins, including Ethereum and Ripple, have fared worse, down 80 percent and 92 percent, respectively.

On Monday The New York Times also reported on the sharp cryptocurrency fall since coins hit their peak values, focusing less on specific numbers and more on the people affected. Many of those caught up in the crypto fever of late 2017, who invested as coins came close to their peaks, have taken painful losses. The story includes quotes from people who have, like some of the cryptocurrencies themselves, now lost 90 percent of their money.

"By many metrics, more people put money into virtual currencies last fall and winter than in all of the preceding nine or so years..." writes The Times. "Almost all of the new customers on Coinbase and Square would be in the red if they bought cryptocurrencies at almost any point over the last nine months and held on to them... The value of all outstanding digital tokens has fallen by about $600 billion, or 75 percent, since the peak in January, according to data from the website coinmarketcap.com."

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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).