Last week was a week of turmoil for bitcoin as it went through the period of plunging from January 8 to January 11 but managed to somehow recover before the weekend. One cannot call early 2018 a good start for bitcoin as its price kept swinging and dropping low after reaching highs. For instance, as it was on January seven as it nearly hit the high of $18,000 per unit and then fell down the very next day.
Alongside with the swings, there has been the rise of rumors and speculation over South Korean perspective trading ban on virtual currency exchanges last week. However, later the country’s justice ministry retreated the idea over the ban, and bitcoin charts demonstrated the positive trends. It means that since now state’s governments have a little power over the crypto craze.
Our top trading bots
Week of Dropping
From Monday to Thursday bitcoin experienced a sustained downward flux, declining by 23% in price during its second week after the New Year.
Almost all cryptocurrencies on the market lived through unpleasant weavings last week, but bitcoin seemed to be the most attractive in the eyes of media as it leads the top-list at CoinMarketCap.
Starting the week from the position of around $16,000 per unit, bitcoin steadily reached the low of $13,100 on January 11. Even though bitcoin managed to sweepingly surge to $14,000 on weekends, in its third week of 2018 it reached the rate of $13,000.
Regulatory Turmoil
Several factors affected bitcoin’s and its brethren’s price swings, and one of them was the desire of countries’ authorities to curb the crypto market.
South Korea
The market took the claim of the South Korean Ministry of Justice to heart, as it announced its plans to ban trading in cryptos. However, such a decision to prepare the related bill wasn’t in a consensus with other South Korean government branches, for example, with the Ministry of Strategy and Justice, so later minister of finance announced that the decision was not final, calming down the chaos.
China
Another disturbing moment for the markets was the China’s notification about its plan to prohibit ICOs and crypto exchanges in the aftermath. The next step for the country’s government is considered a sort of persecution of miners. Notably, China holds the most substantial part of BTC mining power.
The thing is that the power for mining is relatively cheap in the country, and now China’s authorities are going to increase the rates so that it will be more complicated for miners to run business and earn more significant gains.
The USA
Even in the US, the country, which has been quite patient with the crypto market for some time, is now trying to intrude into its regulations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently been showing its desire to control the crypto markets. The reason is typical – the fear of money laundering and the related issues.
All these alterations demonstrate that there should be some balance between countries’ trying to curb crypto markets and the virtual money economy so that it won’t lead to severe panic on the crypto market.
Chart Source:coinmarketcap.com
