Bitcoin continues to plummet this week and the popular cryptocurrency has lost nearly half of its peak value from only a month ago. At the time of publication, Bitcoin was down 20% in the last 24 hours and lost more than $30 billion of value. On Wednesday, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading at under $10,000, which it hasn’t been that low since November 27, 2017 according to CoinBase. This comes only weeks after Bitcoin hit its peak price of more than $19,000 in mid-December, but all of the unbelievable gains have been lost in the last 10 days, which could be attributed to possible regulations against the digital currency from numerous countries around the world.
But it isn’t just Bitcoin facing huge downturns in the last week. Ethereum and Ripple, the second and third-biggest cryptocurrencies respectively, are also suffering a miserable week. Ethereum was trading at $823, down 38% in a week. Ripple lost more than half of its value in a mere week.
The cause of the freefall could be linked to several countries floating the idea of possible regulations and shutdowns on cryptocurrencies. China, South Korea, and Japan are contemplating a crackdown on the notoriously volatile cryptocurrencies. Kim Dong-yeon, South Korea’s Finance Minister, said his country was contemplating a shutdown on cryptocurrencies. China was planning to block domestic access to Chinese and offshore cryptocurrency platforms that allow centralized trading according to Bloomberg. This all comes a week after Berkshire Hathaway billionaire investor Warren Buffett warned with “almost certainty” that cryptocurrencies “will come to a bad ending.”
[CNBC]