At press time, bitcoin is trading for just shy of $10,400. This is where it stood roughly 48 hours ago, though during yesterday’s early morning hours, the price had fallen to roughly $10,166. This means that the currency has jumped by about $200 in the last day.
Bitcoin Is Up, but Still Down in Many Ways
This is always good news, but it doesn’t change the fact that fear is spreading throughout the crypto space, mainly over what regulations we can potentially expect in the coming months or years. It’s true that for the time being, bitcoin is showing some signs of moving back up, but the truth remains that not long ago, the currency dropped about 20 percent and experienced its worst fall in over nine months. That was when it was trading for about $3,500 during November of 2018.
It appears Facebook’s Libra has opened Pandora’s box. Regulators and lawmakers everywhere reacted with extreme aggression and concern over what Libra had in store for users, and while it may have seemed a bit over the top, you can’t deny that there are reasons for some of this concern.
For example, Facebook was tied to Cambridge Analytica in 2018. Following a lengthy Senate hearing in which the company was grilled for allegedly selling customers’ private data to third parties for advertising purposes, Facebook faced fines that amounted to several billion dollars. Trust in Facebook isn’t at its highest point, and even dropped by about 66 percent following the hearing.
So, when legislative officials heard that Facebook had plans to enter the financial space and that it wanted to monitor people’s monetary activity, they jumped into action and sought to learn more. Christel Quek, chief commercial officer at Bolt Global (an entertainment company and cryptocurrency wallet provider) explained in an interview:
The currency regulatory roadblock on Facebook’s plans for its digital token has dimmed down investor sentiment for cryptocurrencies… Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies including Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple’s XRP have declined [this week], weighed down by concerns of a slowing economy.
That slowing economy is largely being contributed to President Trump’s trade war with China, though several billion dollars in tariffs have since been postponed, and we likely won’t see them take effect for the next few months. Unfortunately, bitcoin has still lost some stamina regarding its “digital gold” status.
The Fire Is Dying Down…
While it’s still viewed as a solid investment amongst some enthusiasts, the idea that it will somehow protect them from losing their wealth has died down a bit considering the stock market has shown mild signs of recovery and the mentioned tariffs have been pushed back.
Per social media and other public forums, the attitude among many crypto traders is one of “fear” rather than “greed,” which has fallen heavily since bitcoin (albeit briefly) dropped below the $10,000 mark earlier this week.
