The price of Bitcoin fell below $6,000 over the weekend, hitting a new low as sentiment among investors took a downward dive.
New Low for Bitcoin
On Sunday, the price of Bitcoin dropped to $5,826, according to CoinMarketCap, surpassing its previous low for 2018. On the 6th of February, the number one digital currency was valued at $6,048.
Bitcoin has since recovered and is currently trading at $6,213, representing a 0.29 percent rise in the past 24 hours. Over the last seven days, it has dropped by nearly eight percent. Market prices across the board have also fallen in value. Ethereum is valued at $448, dropping nearly 15 percent in seven days. Whereas, fifth-placed EOS has declined by over 24.50 percent.
At the time of publishing, the market cap of the entire industry is valued at $252.8 billion. A far cry from the more than $830 billion it was valued at the start of January.
Yet, while Bitcoin prices are fluctuating, it’s still up 140 percent compared to this time last year.
Negative News Hits the Market
The recent new low in the price of Bitcoin comes after negative news hit the industry. Last week, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb was the victim of a hack. As a result, thieves were able to steal 35 billion won worth of digital currency it was storing.
The hack at Bithumb follows that of South Korean crypto exchange Coinrail. Earlier this month, it was targeted by a “cyber intrusion,” causing a loss of about 30 percent of the coins traded on the exchange. It’s estimated that 40 billion won, or $37.28 million, worth of cryptocurrencies was stolen.
Another factor that could be impacting market prices is that of Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). On Friday, Japan’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, bitFlyer, announced that it was temporarily suspending its account creation for new customers. This was because of a business improvement order it had received from the FSA.
The Tokyo-based exchange said in a statement on its website that:
Our management and all employees are united in our understanding of how serious these issues are, as well as how serious we are in responding to them going forward.
The FSA also issued business improvement orders to five other cryptocurrency exchanges: QUOINE, Bit Bank, BTC Box, Bit Point, and Tech Bureau. All of them have been ordered to build on measures in place to ensure consumer protection, in addition to boosting procedures for its internal control system.
The market remains down, but for how much longer?
Do you think the industry will improve? Let us know in the comments below.
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