Bitcoin keeps hitting new lows, and everyone is in a panic. The de facto leader of the cryptocurrency market has dropped to an astonishing new low of nearly $7000 – down from the all-time high of $19,000 we witnessed only a month ago. That’s a massive dip in an incredibly short amount of time, which once again highlights the volatility of cryptocurrencies in general.
While nobody knows for sure what exactly is causing Bitcoin to plummet in price, including esteemed industry experts, we can certainly speculate as to what triggered this new drastic downturn.
Back in January, a report out of India initially struck fear into the cryptocurrency market. In his annual speech to parliament, India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, stated the following:
This vague statement led to media establishments across the globe reporting of a potential ban on cryptocurrency trading in India. Reports included fears that India may deem Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as illegal—which may have been the starting point for the chaos we are in now.
Of course, it was only later understood that Mr. Jaitley was merely suggesting to regulate cryptocurrencies in order to prevent illegal trading rather than looking to ban cryptocurrencies altogether.
Moreover, Mr. Jaitley stated that India would look to use blockchain technology as part of their government. This helped in calming the storm a bit, but it is still unknown what types of regulations India may put in place.
Yes, there are much bigger driving forces in the cryptocurrency market than India. However, there is talk of new widespread regulations that may arrive following March’s G20 meeting. This is where the world’s most powerful countries’ heads of finance will meet and discuss potential changes, as well as the cryptocurrency market in general.
As many crypto-enthusiasts will know, South Korea is one of the biggest driving forces of the market. It is also a country where cryptocurrency is not recognized as a currency or a financial product and has little to no regulation – until now, that is. The fear that the South Korean government is to make sweeping regulations of the cryptocurrency market did not bode well with the community.
Since September of 2017, the South Korean government has been closely monitoring the cryptocurrency market and had planned to enforce several regulations in order
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