Just how immature is the crypto market? Look no further than certain twitter accounts and newsfeed whose speculative statements like “…government MAY ban cryptocurrencies” and “…Bitcoin is a fraud” have had investors pull out of the market faster than a vampire at the sight of garlic.
The past 48 hours has been a wild ride for Bitcoin investors with the pioneering cryptocurrency falling from roughly $14,000 to about $9,000 in one of the most extreme display of reversed “buy the rumor, sell the news”. Is it time to ask what is Bitcoin? Or are Bitcoin investors just big fans of stampeded and are most often than not, waiting to cry ‘wolf’ to justify their actions?
Bitcoin’s price movement is now the stuff of legends. One moment, it’s smashing through ATH records like a bull in a china shop, the next, it becomes Icarus plummeting from the sky. Bitcoin fell from a high of $19,870.62 in December 17, 2017 to $9863.38 exactly a month later. And whenever Bitcoin falls, it drags down other cryptocurrencies. Statistics have shown each time the market goes for a dive, it is usually after the government or some other financial bigwig speaks up cryptocurrency. In the past, this used to centre around the legitimacy of the currency. These days, they tend to question the future of digital asset and this time, it was a statement by South Korea’s Ministry of Justice that the country was considering banning cryptocurrency trading.
South Korea is the third largest market for Bitcoin with some of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges based there. Initial reports – which has now been attributed to mistranslation – claimed that the government was going to ban cryptocurrency. However, the statement has now been clarified to mean the government will be implementing stricter regulatory policies
“With South Korea, Japan and China all making noises about a regulatory swoop, and officials in France and the United States vowing to investigate cryptocurrencies, there are concerns that global coordination on how to regulate them will accelerate. Officials are expected to debate the rise of bitcoin at the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina in March,” writes Reuters.
Regulation and clampdowns could translate into a lot if thing, but some investors are not waiting to see what that translate into, choosing to cash out instead. Even though cryptocurrency trade expert were quick to point out that Bitcoin’s market in the first months of the year was becoming a tradition. Former COO of Skype turn Bitcoin expert, Michael Jackson, in his interview with News Week said; “We’ve seen price falls like this before, and when you look back on them now, you’ll see they weren’t part of a bubble, just a blip,”