Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is experiencing a huge sell-off, increasing to 15% in the last 24 hours – the biggest intraday decline since February – days after reaching a record high.
At the end of February, bitcoin saw a decline to as low as $ 43,000 amid uncertainty in traditional markets over stimulus expectations and their positive effect on US yields.
The decline appears to coincide with reports that the U.S. Treasury is planning to tackle financial institutions for money laundering carried out by digital assets.
On Sunday, bitcoin dumped nearly $ 8,000 and is currently trading 12% lower at $ 55,042 below a day high of $ 61,293.
Other cryptocurrencies have also declined.
Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second largest cryptocurrency in circulation, fell by 17% before reducing losses. It is currently down 13% to $ 2,132.
Litecoin (LTC-USD) also declined, down 24% to $ 252.
This comes after bitcoin approached $ 65,000 last week ahead of the historic debut listing of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase on Wednesday. Coinbase is the first crypto firm to list on the Nasdaq (^ IXIC).
Bitcoin prices have been up and down over the past few weeks as governments and regulators have adjusted the sector amid rising demand.
On Friday, bitcoin plunged 4% after the Central Bank of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets for payments.
The central bank of Turkey said the ban was motivated by the lack of ‘central government regulation’ and ‘supervisory mechanisms’ for cryptocurrencies and other similar digital assets.
It added that cryptocurrencies, among other risks, ‘due to the lack of regulation’ could cause irrecoverable losses for the parties to the transactions’. The ban will take effect from April 30 this year.
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Last year, a number of financial institutions and well-known investors placed emphasis on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, which caused the price to skyrocket.
This has made cryptocurrencies more popular over the past few months, especially bitcoin, which has more than doubled in the past six months.
Earlier in 2021, the market value of all bitcoin in circulation reached $ 1 tonne for the first time, after a surge of more than 800%. In December, it rose past Visa (V) to make it the largest financial service in the world.
In October last year, Bitcoin gained a lot of sentiment after PayPal (PYPL) based in California on payment platforms, was able to keep the cryptocurrency in their digital wallets.
Meanwhile, US investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) has also started banking on Coinbase and Gemini platforms and Visa and Mastercard have provided services to crypto businesses.
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Acceptance of mainstream investors and businesses, including Tesla (TSLA) and Mastercard (MA), has also fueled bitcoin.
But it’s not the only cryptocurrency that is doing well. Ethereum, the second largest market capitalization in the world by market capitalization, is also picking up pace and rose to $ 2,488 for the first time in its history last week.
Recently, dogecoin (DOGE-USD) stole the spotlight of bitcoin and ethereum this week after rising by more than 200% within 24 hours, giving a market capitalization of $ 52 billion.
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