On Tuesday morning, it fell as low as $11,750, representing a massive 24-hour drop of nearly 15%.
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The price of bitcoin has fallen to below $11,500 per coin, having slumped over 15 percent in a single day and lost some 40 percent of its value since a record high of around $20,000 in December.
Along with South Korea, China has also moved to escalate its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading, according to Bloomberg. Following South Korea’s decision to ban cryptocurrency trading, China’s central bank expressed its plans to block all local and offshore, individuals and businesses that provide centralized cryptocurrency exchange-like services. The Bitcoin took the dip after South Korea’s Finance Minister Kim Dong-yong on Monday said his government was planning to clamp down on the “irrational” virtual currency, reported Reuters.
Last week, the justice minister’s remark that the country will ban bitcoin and other digital currencies triggered big sell-offs and a public outcry.
While the government is still considering a ban, 210,000 South Koreans have signed an online petition on the presidential office’s website asking the government not to ban trading digital currencies. In addition, crypto exchange Kraken was down for longer than expected to upgrade its trading platform. Has Germany become one of the most progressive and forward thinking nations in the world in terms of currency?
Look away now if you own bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
However, small peer-to-peer payment systems are not being targeted.
“Bitcoin was the talk across financial markets for all the wrong reasons on Tuesday, after prices tumbled sharply to their weakest level since early December”, said Otunuga, noting talk of tighter regulation “has effectively eroded investor appetite for bitcoin”. He believes the light trading volume caused bitcoin’s price to plunge.
It’s been a pretty dark week for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin’s market cap has been falling and in a major blow, it fell by close to $20 Billion in less than an hour. Bitcoin just dropped with $1,300 in 1.5 hours.
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That pushed ethereum’s market capitalization down to $108 billion and lowered ripple’s value to $53 billion.
