As BTCChina announced that it will stop new users from registering from September 30th, the price of bitcoin fell down with $1000 since the start of the month. With speculation about the Chinese government banning all exchanges from trading bitcoin and launching their own cryptocurrency, and the comments of JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, who slandered bitcoin as a “fraud”, bitcoin price has seen new lows ever since. In his words “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed”.
After those two “cold shocks” for bitcoin investors, today bitcoin hit the $3,500 level. This drop of almost 25% for less than a month signals the fear across investors and the possibility of a huge bubble. The current market capitalization of the digital cryptocurrency industry is around $170 billion.
According to the chief market analyst of Think Markets UK, Naeem Aslam, the Asian market is of primary importance to the demand and supply of Bitcoin. It is one of the biggest markets and the shutdown of Chinese trade exchanges is a huge blow for the digital cryptocurrency. The massive sell-off of bitcoin plunges the price every day, and this trend is expected to continue with the current mounting fear of a stock market bubble and the possible issue of domestic Chinese digital cryptocurrency.
Howard Mark, the billionaire investor, has also discredited bitcoin, announcing it to be “a pyramid scheme”, while the co-chairman of Oaktree Capital said the price of bitcoin is just pushed up by speculators, according to Express UK.
In addition to the growing fear across Asia and the US, Australia has also taken serious measures against the growing concerns over bitcoin. Australian’s Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, said that there is a potential for serious fraudulent activity and the evolving technologies are the perfect tool for criminals who are eager to exploit them in various ways. They have started chasing and prosecuting existing criminals known for using bitcoin as a means of performing their criminal activities.