Crypto Currency Backlash Sees Flight From Cryptos and Bitcoin
By: GoldCore
GoldSeek.com
Wednesday, 7 February 2018
– Bitcoin falls from $20,000 to below $6,000 and bounces back to $8000
– Top 50 crypto currencies lost over 50% of value in 24 hours
– Over $60 billion wiped off entire crypto currency market in 24 hours
– Markets concerned about increased regulation, manipulation & country-wide bans
– ‘Growing global unease about risks virtual currencies pose to investors and financial system’ – SEC
– Gold acting as store of value from “correcting” stock markets & crashing cryptos
– Gold is essentially flat in recent days and building on its 11% gain in 2017
– Offline physical gold is safer than online digital gold
Investors in the bitcoin and cryptomarkets are running scared as prices continued to plunge yesterday before a bounce today.
Top altcoins lost 50% of their value on Monday, bringing the total value wiped off the crypto market in 24 hours to over $60 billion.
Monday’s performance is a further kick for a market that has rapidly lost favour since bitcoin touched $20,000 in December. Investors and market participants are being forced to question the stability and security of the crypto currency market which is currently under regulated and prone to be taken advantage of.
Meanwhile, the gold price rose Monday and is essentially flat in recent days – building on 11% gain in 2017.
Investors began to turn to gold last month, as they began to seek ways to protect their crypto profits. Now, the market is spooked by developments in both price and the wider ecosystem, prompting calls for investors to avoid cryptos altogether.
Government shutdown
Tougher regulation has been a key factor overshadowing market action, in the last few weeks.
Yesterday Financial News, a service closely associated with the People’s Bank of China, reported that the central bank will block all cryptocurrency and ICO related platforms. Previously it announced the crackdown of domestic platforms, this has now been extended to foreign ones, as well.
“In the future, any related (platform) will be closed as soon as it is found. At the same time, further regulatory measures will be taken with the future development of the situation.” Financial News
The PBOC news follows India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcement that the government was looking to ‘eliminate the use of digital currencies’. Whilst the country is not a major player in the crypto universe, it does put a spanner in the works for those who were hoping the likes of bitcoin would become adopted globally – either as a global currency or a store of value.
Jaitley stated that bitcoin was being used for ‘illegitimate’ activities and that the country would not recognise cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
“The government does not recognize cryptocurrency as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system.” – Arun Jaitley
The severe swings in price combined with security issues have lead many regulators to push forward with deciding how they are going to deal with cryptocurrencies, regardless of how popular bitcoin is in the country. It is also seen a threat to their fiat currencies and existing banking and monetary systems.
The Rest…HERE
