You know, they say “timing is everything” and when it comes to “nailing it” on market timing, no one does it like CNBC.
Note the timestamp on this tweet:
“Woo hoo!”
What could go wrong? Or, perhaps more poignantly, what could already be going wrong?
Well, this:
As you can see, the dip buyers came in to rescue the space from what was starting to look like an outright catastrophe. Have a look at the ridiculous ramp in Ripple which, at one point, had crashed more than 30%:
THIS is how you buy the damn Ripple dip… pic.twitter.com/1C2WZE4S0o
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) January 8, 2018
But even if no one had bought the dip, investors could have consoled themselves by tuning into CNBC’s brand new “CryptoDesk” for all the late breaking news on the blood bath.
And if you think I’m being sarcastic – I’m not:
Cryptocurrency ripple crashes 30% in 24 hours; bitcoin also dropping https://t.co/GmuLIJrWPr pic.twitter.com/c49hAZPwL9
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 8, 2018
**********
As a reminder, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service are set to conduct a joint inspection into accounts offered to cryptocurrency exchanges at Woori Bank, Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Development Bank, and NH Bank.
Yonhap describes this as “a rare move” and to be sure, it sounds pretty damn extensive. Here’s Yonhap:
The officials will carry out an intensive probe into virtual accounts that the six lenders have provided to cryptocurrency exchanges, said an official of the Financial Services Commission (FSC).
As of December, the number of accounts related to cryptocurrency exchanges came to 111 and their combined deposits are estimated at 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion).
Each account is presumed to have generated up to millions of virtual accounts.
The authorities will check whether the six banks carried out their obligations to prevent money laundering in managing virtual accounts
They are seeking to cut off fund inflows into cryptocurrency exchanges and shutter cryptocurrency exchanges that have loopholes in their system.
The FSC plans to issue another warning message this week against cryptocurrency speculation.
Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the regulatory body, is scheduled to hold a press briefing in Seoul on Monday afternoon to explain the background of the inspection and the government’s resolve to continue to seek measures to reduce related risks.
South Korea has said it will ban issuance of new virtual accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges under a new measure set to take effect around Jan. 20.
The government also said only real-name bank accounts and matching accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges can be used for deposits and withdrawals in a move to curb a frenzy of speculative investment into cryptocurrencies.
Allow us to gently remind you that this is why we continually warn about regulatory risk in the cryptosphere. It’s not because we “want” to see authorities regulate these things out of existence, rather it’s precisely because it doesn’t matter what we want or what you want.
Governments are getting increasingly concerned about the space and contrary to what your favorite cryptocurrency enthusiast might have told you, almost everyone needs an exchange. Sure, there will always be a way for people to trade cryptocurrencies and presumably to convert them into real money, but the bottom line is that if governments squeeze the exchanges, if companies like Visa make it more difficult for people to use cryptos in their daily lives, and in an extreme scenario, if central banks were to decide to make convertibility illegal, this whole thing ends overnight for the vast majority of regular people who are involved in it.
