Cryptos Tumble After India Says It Will “Take All Measures To Eliminate” Their Use
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Thu, 02/01/2018
India’s government became the latest country to declare its opposition to bitcoin payments, saying it would do everything in its power to eliminate the use of cryptocurrencies.
“The government does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told lawmakers in New Delhi on Thursday. However, while blasting bitcoin, the Indian finmin announced that India would embrace blockchain “The government will explore use of blockchain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy.”
The news sent the crypto space sliding, with Bitcoin now well below its recent support level around $10,000. Curiously, Ethereum has been largely spared the recent rout, and remains up +30% YTD, while Bitcoin is down -30% in 2018.
Since reaching a peak of almost $20,000 in early December after the introduction of futures contracts on regulated exchanges in the U.S., a series of negative news has buffeted Bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies, with losses intensifying since the start of 2018. Bitcoin’s January slide knocked $44.2 billion off the $200 billion in market value generated in all of 2017, the biggest one-month loss in dollar terms in the short history of digital assets according to Bloomberg.
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