Bitcoin flows as cryptocurrency sales accelerate | Top news

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin plunged more than 12 percent on Monday, prolonging the declines in recent weeks in a sell-off in digital currencies.

Several analysts have explained that several factors have accelerated the recession, including the strengthening of regulatory oversight in the United States and the postponement to January 2019 of the highly anticipated launch of bitcoin futures by Bakkt, the cryptography platform. Intercontinental Exchange.

"These factors, coupled with lukewarm network fundamentals and information that the use of crypto as a tool for services such as payments, have fallen, have resulted in significant pressure from selling against the lack of resistance to buying – up to an apparent capitulation point ", said Aditya Das, analyst. at Brave New Coin, a cryptographic asset market data company.

Bitcoin fell to $ 3,519.94 on the Bitstamp platform after hitting a low of $ 3,462.57 over 14 months and was down 12.6%. It has lost 74% of its value so far this year, after reaching nearly $ 20,000 last December.

Other digital currencies also fell sharply, with Ethereum's ether falling 7 percent to $ 106.69 and Ripple's down 5.6 percent to 34 cents US.

The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropped to $ 122.3 billion on Monday, down 85% from the peak of nearly $ 800 billion reached in early January this year.

Consumer investors have stayed away from bitcoins, as their concerns are related to insufficient regulatory oversight and undeveloped market infrastructure, compounded by frequent price fluctuations.

According to analysts, the US Securities and Exchange Commission was partly responsible for the recent sale, the delay in approving new bitcoin instruments, as well as its inquiries into initial coin offerings and trade. cryptographic.

The SEC imposed civil penalties on Airfox and Paragon Coin who sold digital tokens considered as securities in initial coin offerings. These companies have agreed to return funds to the detrimental investors, register the chips as securities, file periodic reports with the Commission and pay penalties.

Bloomberg announced this month that the United States Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the Tether cryptocurrency about the possible manipulation of bitcoin prices at the end of last year.

At the same time, some see the sharp price cuts as an opportunity to embark on viable cryptocurrency projects at a discounted price.

"It's important to point out that no unpleasant titles are directly related to the fundamentals of legitimate crypto-currency projects," said Donald Bullers, North American representative of the US-based platform. web3 Elastos infrastructure.

"That there are charges of manipulation of the market, a controversial range or short-term speculators who decide not to play the game in the long run, this dive will allow to make the most of it and the most important decentralization projects will continue to survive, "he added.

(Report by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, edited by Susan Thomas)

Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters.