By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Cryptocurrency market faced significant correction today.
Earlier today major cryptocurrencies market suffer significant corrections, as Etherium price today was down by 8%, Ripple – by 12% and Bitcoin – 6%. At the time of writing they composed $305.26, $0.210699 and $5432.79 correspondently, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Practically all cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, and NEM lost over 5 percent, with Ripple facing the largest decline in value at 12.56 percent.
And though experts don’t name any certain reasons that could cause such a notable drop, it could be prompted by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission which said virtual “tokens” used in initial coin offerings can come under CFTC oversight, a message that a market averse to scrutiny did not take well. “There is no inconsistency between the SEC’s analysis and the CFTC’s determination” from 2015 that virtual currencies are commodities, the CFTC said.
Coincidentally, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple, which suffered most, have previously experienced major developer activity and achieved important milestones in the past few weeks.
Thus, Ethereum recently completed its Byzantium hard fork successfully and, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the blockchain network has been relatively stable subsequent to the completion of the fork. Ripple, meanwhile, has partnered with the Gates Foundation, which entails the integration of the Ripple blockchain network to settle mobile payments through the Ripple interledger technology.
Meanwhile, there’re rumors surfacing and claiming China could take Bitcoin price below $5.000 later this week as the country’s officials are gathering for the opening of the 19th national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that may result in policies which can simply Bitcoin price.
For sure, cryptocurrency enthusiasts hope to see the market prices going up as soon as possible, but it’s hard to predict whether and when it could happen. Now it seems unlikely we will see any major progress being made whatsoever, although the tide could always turn at any given moment. However, Bitcoin still remains the first place to reflect the bigger picture, even if the current price trend tells a different story.
However, there’re also some reasons to stay optimistic about the Bitcoin’s future. First of all, as Bank of America says in its recent report, institutional investors continue to keep a close eye on cryptocurrencies, aiming to offer them in custom products. Bank of America predicts that it could affect the “liquidity and market capitalization for such currencies.”
“The coin universe is dynamic and innovative and volatile; while a true value for cryptocurrencies may be impossible to assess, one factor which we believe could affect their liquidity and market capitalisation would be if one or more global broker/dealers decided to offer institutional-like products,” they concluded.
Which is more, though South Korea and China have clamped down on bitcoin, investor haven’t lost their interest in the cryptocurrency market. According to reports, investors in both countries are paying a premium to invest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In fact, some bitcoin trades through China’s OKCoin exchange have already surpassed the $6,000 value.
“South Korea’s regulation has resulted in limited numbers of cryptocurrencies and high demand. The result is that the Asian country has become the largest market for ethereum. Demand from Japan, which recognized bitcoin as legal tender earlier this year, could also drive up prices for cryptocurrencies,” Investopedia reports.