Bitcoin drops below $8,000 for the 2nd time in 3 days
- Bitcoin drops back below $8,000 per coin on Monday morning.
- After a rough week last week, the cryptocurrency market remains under pressure.
- Last week's sell-off was driven by an investigation into tether, a cryptocurrency that some fear has been used to inflate the value of bitcoin.
LONDON — The price of bitcoin dropped back below $8,000 per coin on Monday morning as high volatility in the cryptocurrency markets persists.
Bitcoin initially dropped below $8,000 during a wild day of trading on Friday, which saw the cryptocurrency drop as much as 15% to a low of $7,700, before jumping and eventually ending the day in positive territory, close to $9,000.
After a reasonably stable weekend of trading, bitcoin's slump resumed on Monday, falling to a low of $7,876 per coin overnight. As of 7.50 a.m. GMT (2.50 a.m. ET) bitcoin is hovering around the $8,000 mark, but remains a little below it, as the chart below shows:
The crypto market has been on the back foot since the start of the year, hit by fears of a regulatory crackdown and slipping Asian volumes. Bitcoin is now at less than half its December peak of over $19,000.
Monday's drop comes amid announcements from numerous major banks banning the use of their credit cards to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the USA, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup have announced bans, while Lloyds Banking Group is expected to do the same in the UK on Monday.
More concerns emerged about the sector last week as Facebook banned cryptocurrency advertisements and US regulators began investigating tether, a cryptocurrency that some fear has been used to inflate the value of bitcoin.
Last week India's finance minister Arun Jaitley also said that the Indian government "does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system."
Elsewhere in the crypto markets on Monday, Ethereum is lower by just 0.3% to trade at $821, while Ripple's XRP is 2% lower at $0.794.
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Monday, February 05, 2018
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