Bitcoin demolish as much as 11 percent against the U.S. dollar in 24 hours by Friday afternoon during Asian hours, scratch fresh declines for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
It’s been a rough December for the digital token: Its price dropped 8 percent on the opening day of the month.
Bitcoin traded at $3,376.27 as of 8:40 a.m. ET Friday, falling 8 percent over the last 24 hours, concerting to data from industry site Coindesk.
Prices of XRP and Ether, the second and third largest cryptocurrencies by market value, fell in the same 24 hour period. XRP fell 10.16 percent and Ether dropped 15.56 percent, according to Coindesk.
One analyst mounded CNBC via email that the cryptocurrency market “definitely seems to be suffering.”
“The market is in a general bearish trend that doesn’t appearance of to be letting up driven by what seems to be a general negative sentiment towards crypto,” said Zennon Kapron, top dog at financial technology consultancy Kapronasia. “As the market is heavily retail driven, it’s very much at the mercy of group tender-heartedness which causes huge swings.”
“Without any positive drivers in the near future, this could continue fountain into 2019,” he said.
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This calendar year has generally been unkind to cryptocurrency prices, with the industry seeing its entire store cap falling almost 86.92 percent from its highs in January, according to data from Coinmarketcap. 24-hour custom volumes have also plunged about 61.63 percent since then.
In recent industry related dope, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted an update on Thursday regarding the approval process for a rule change proposal for the sufferance of a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF).
An ETF is a financial product that tracks the price of an asset and is listed on an exchange. It means that investors don’t indeed have to buy the underlying asset. ETF’s are seen as a way for institutional investors to get into cryptocurrency investing in a safer way than buying bitcoin on a crypto-asset interchange.
The ETF in question is the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, created in a team up between money management firm VanEck and blockchain convention SolidX. The attempt is VanEck’s third at creating a bitcoin ETF. In the update, the SEC said it was delaying its decision until Feb. 29, 2018.
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“The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the tabled rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change,” Eduardo A. Aleman, aide secretary in the SEC, said in the release.
The last time the SEC postponed the decision on the VanEck SolidX bitcoin ETF, over $9 billion was wiped off the value of bitcoin.
In the meantime, lawmakers in the U.S. sought to introduce new rules on Thursday for the cryptocurrency industry aimed at protecting consumers and keeping America winning in the space.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
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