At press time, bitcoin – the world’s number one cryptocurrency by market cap – has fallen all the way back to $7,600, meaning it has lost more than $500 in just 48 hours.
Bitcoin Falls Again
This is a nasty drop, and one that’s reminiscent of where bitcoin stood at around this time last month. During late October, the currency was hit smackdab in the middle when Mark Zuckerberg – the head honcho of Facebook – was scheduled to testify before a congressional hearing regarding Libra and its properties. It appears the U.S. Congress was a little worried about Libra potentially opening the door to money launderers.
Bitcoin fell to about $7,400 during this time. The anticipation proved to be too great, and the currency suffered for it. The trouble was that it was suffering already thanks to the low-end introduction of Bakkt to the crypto trading market. Bakkt is an institutional crypto trading platform governed by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Originally introduced in late 2018, the platform incurred several delays over regulatory concerns and finally opened its doors for business in late September of 2019.
The platform had a rather dismal debut, trading less than 75 contracts during the first weekend it was available. This also hit bitcoin hard; at the time, the currency was trading for roughly $9,500, but BTC later fell to $8,100 only a few days after Bakkt had made its debut.
Despite all this, however, bitcoin managed to recuperate following positive sentiment from Chinese president Xi Jinping towards blockchain technology. Jinping commented that blockchain could potentially reinvigorate the Chinese economy, and that he had plans to push blockchain innovation within the country’s borders during the coming months.
Bitcoin rose to the mid-$8,000 range following these comments, but the currency later spiked even further after Bakkt continued to attract more investors and show greater promise. Just weeks after it had debuted, the platform saw millions in bitcoin futures contracts trades, and the currency began to experience solid growth from there.
Sadly, these gains are clearly short lived. Bitcoin has lost all the value it has since added to its price over the past month, and there’s nothing in sight to show that it could potentially regain that value. Again, it appears Tom Lee of Fundstrat fame is off balance when he said that the currency would end the year at an even $40,000.
The Currency Won’t Hit a New High Anytime Soon
Having dropped below the $8,000 mark for the second time in two months, bitcoin appears to have lost a lot of stamina, and with only five weeks left in the year, it doesn’t look like this figure will be struck before 2020 rolls along.
2017 was a great year for bitcoin; 2018 was dismal, and 2019 was mediocre. Let’s hope 2020 brings promise back to the crypto space.
