The worth of bitcoin tumbled over the weekend and was down as a lot as 19.5% from record highs posted by the favored cryptocurrency previously week.
Bitcoin dropped as low as $52,148.98 on Sunday morning after reaching an all-time high above $64,800 on Wednesday, based on CoinDesk. It was final buying and selling simply over $55,795.
Other cryptocurrencies, together with ether and dogecoin, additionally took a hit over the weekend. The worth of ether, the second-biggest token by market worth, dropped as a lot as 18% and fell under $2,000 on Sunday earlier than extra lately buying and selling at over $2,150. The token had additionally lately hit document highs, topping $2,500 on Thursday.
Meanwhile, dogecoin, which soared greater than 400% at one level final week and hit an all-time high of 45 cents, dropped as low as 24 cents this weekend.
What precisely is driving the drop is unclear.
An unverified report on Twitter claimed that the U.S. Treasury Department may very well be trying to crack down on monetary establishments for cash laundering utilizing cryptocurrency.
A tweet from the account @Fxhedgers that referred to the potential of a crackdown, citing unnamed sources, went viral on Saturday night.
The U.S. Treasury Department didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
The cryptocurrencies hit document highs this previous week amid the thrill surrounding the inventory market debut of cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Coinbase, which grew to become the biggest cryptocurrency firm to go public on Wednesday. The firm’s blockbuster direct itemizing briefly valued Coinbase at about $100 billion (earlier than falling to simply over $62 billion by the top of the week), giving a lift to the remainder of the cryptocurrency trade.
Despite these document costs, some buyers have been involved that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are experiencing a bubble. The recent spike by dogecoin, which started as a joke primarily based on the 2013 “Doge” meme, specifically, has fueled concerns of a bubble within the cryptocurrency market.
