The bubble of Bitcoin explodes in a big way

The bitcoin, the first and main decentralized virtual currency, yesterday lost the level of $ 5,000, after collapsing 12% something that had not been seen since it began its takeoff in October 2017.

Bitcoin lost value because this morning sinks more than 4% and goes to $ 4,500, which signifies a bearish run of eight sessions in which collapsed 30%.The selling panic hits other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, which sinks more than 15%, or Litecoin, which drops 12%.

It is difficult to determine the reason for this sudden fall but it has much to do with a bifurcation or separation ('hard fork' in the jargon) in bitcoin cash that took place last Thursday, and that faces, on the one hand, the Australian Craig Wright ( self-proclaimed as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin) and on the other the giant Bitmain and investor Roger Ver (nicknamed 'Bitcoin Jesus' for his adherence to orthodox rules).

That is to say, in the end, there will be two bifurcations of bitcoin cash; on the one hand 'bitcoin cash ABC', supported by Ver, and 'bitcoin cash SV', promoted by Wright. It is more than anything a technical dispute between both factions, whose differences are insurmountable, a conflict that in turn will give rise to two different versions of bitcoin cash, weaker a priori than the original.

what some traders speculate is that many investors in bitcoin would be trying to accumulate funds in cash by selling the cryptocurrency, to buy in due time one of the two versions of bitcoin cash, in anticipation that they will appreciate in the future, which would explain the crash

Bitcoin, below $ 5,000 on a roller coaster that continues to plummet

That has returned to happen in recent days and especially in the last hours in which a bitcoin is worth less than $ 5,000. At the moment it is below $ 4,500, and the rest of cryptocurrencies also fall significantly. There are no clear reasons behind these new falls, and once again it is impossible to predict if the value will continue to fall or will go back at some point.

Bitcoin keeps hitting bottom again and again

Bitcoin was not seen in these values ​​since October 2017, but at that time the value did not stop rising and on these dates, the opposite happens. The falls affect the rest of the market, and at this time the vast majority of cryptocurrency fall between 15% and 20% compared to its value the previous day.

Coin Desk remind, perhaps to try to reassure those who invested in these virtual currencies, that these remarkable falls are not entirely strange in this segment: "in 2013 the price of BTC grew to a historical record of 1,163 dollars only to fall by under 160 dollars a year later, at that time litecoin (LTC), which today is the seventh most important cryptocurrency, fell from 50 dollars to something more than 1 dollar ".

Another reason that may explain the sinking has to do with the news that was released on Friday about the SEC, the regulator of the US markets, which has announced its first two fines against two cryptocurrency companies that did not register their initial quotation offers ( known as ICOs) as if they were offers of securities.

The companies in question are Airfox and Paragon Coin, who will have to pay a fine of $ 250,000. The speculation is that, once the ban is opened, the SEC could go against more of these companies, which would then be liquidating their holdings of cryptocurrency to change them in cash before the market regulator falls on them with more sanctions.

Was the December rally a manipulation?

As if that was not enough, today it was just known that the US Department of Justice would be investigating if the epic rally that took place at the end of last year could be partly due to a manipulation of the prices through a plot that would involve to the Bitfinex broker and to the popular but controversial cryptocurrency Tether.

Bitfinex has the same managers as Tether and what the prosecutors suspect is that these Tether cryptocurrencies could have been used to buy bitcoin just at times when the famous digital currency suffered more falls, reports Bloomberg. All these extremes have not been confirmed by the Department of Justice, so the agency clarifies that the investigation could be concluded without determining whether or not there was any illegal behavior.

The bitcoin is approaching the anniversary of its record sunk in new lows

The bitcoin's price had threatened with a stability that was far from the extreme volatility that has characterized its course in recent times. Since last June, its price has remained, with ups and downs, around $ 6,000. In the last week, a bearish trickle began that undermined the level of the 6,000 dollars, until the point of putting in danger, in the session of yesterday, the barrier of the 5,000 dollars.

Today's session not only extends bitcoin's falls. Sales accelerate and cause a collapse that reaches 15% at times.

Bitcoin loses 75% of its value in less than a year

A generalized decline that started last week very abruptly. After a period of stability of several months in which the value of bitcoin was around 6,500 dollars, in just one week the cryptocurrency has lost 2,000 dollars in its price. A strong loss that coincides with the bad day that the different stock exchanges around the world live on Tuesday.

Some analysts recently pointed to a decline in interest in this asset, whose trade volumes in October fell to their lowest level in a year according to the specialized magazine Diar. Compared to its value in mid-December, when it temporarily reached $ 19,500, the bitcoin has lost almost 75% of its value. The bitcoin was only worth a few cents when it was launched in February 2009 by one or several computer scientists who hide under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2017, it went from about $ 1,000 in January to almost 20,000 by the end of the year.

The latest developments highlighted in this section come from Switzerland. The country marks the passage to a global regulation with one of the most severe restrictions proposed up to the moment on cryptocurrencies.