On Wednesday, the price of Bitcoin fell below the mark of $10,000. Thus, the cost of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap fell by half compared to its record high reached in mid-December.
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin’s quotation is $9,469.64, which is 17% below the level of the previous session. On Tuesday, the Crypto currency lost a quarter of its value.
The bitokoy's rate fell below $10,000 for the first time since December 1, 2017. The difference is that at that time Bitcoin was moving on a sharp uptrend and on December 18, it climbed to a record $19,511.
The decrease in the Bitcoin price is connected with fears of a crypto trading ban in South Korea and other countries of the world, writes MarketWatch.
Earlier, South Korean finance minister Kim Dong-yeon confirmed the possibility of a ban on local crypto exchanges.
More than 200,000 cryptocurrency fans in South Korea have already signed a petition to the authorities to stop the offensive against the crypto market.
As CNBC writes, the government of the country may have to respond to this petition, given the significant number of signatures collected.
“The news flow is worsening investor sentiment, but on the other side there is not any strong catalyst to support the market,” said IG analyst Chris Weston. He added that downside risks remained, while short-term rallies were usually interrupted by recessions.
January Bitcoin futures on the CME fell on Wednesday by 14.4% to $9,555, while on CBOE, Bitcoin futures for the same period fell 14% to $9,510.
The rate of Ethereum on Wednesday was down 27%, to $812.33. Ripple has fallen in price by about 24%. As a result of the decline in rates, the capitalization of the Ethereum dropped to $96 billion, and the capitalization of Ripple fell to $45 billion. Bitcoin remained the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with $184 billion.