Folks, it is falling apart for Bitcoin.
And dammit, don’t you say we didn’t try to warn you because in addition to lampooning this mania for nine months straight, we’ve also exhaustively documented the veritable deluge of bad news that’s come cascading down on the crypto crowd over the past two weeks.
There was the Coincheck theft, the CFTC subpoenaing Bitfinex and Tether, India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley vowing to “eliminate” the use of crypto assets, and the ban on crypto purchases using credit cards issued by JPMorgan, BofAML, and Citi. Over the weekend, Lloyds jumped on the bandwagon too:
Lloyds to Ban Bitcoin Purchase Using Credit Cards: Telegraph
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) February 5, 2018
All of that (and more) served to drive Bitcoin below $8,000 and as we wrote on Sunday, hedge fund short positions on the Cboe futures jumped fivefold in the week through last Tuesday.
Well yesterday evening, we also warned investors that SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo were set to have a little chat with lawmakers on Tuesday about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. And guess what? Clayton’s prepared remarks do not appear to bode well and neither do those from Giancarlo.
Clayton will indicate he would be willing to explore Bitcoin regulation and also says he supports efforts to bring clarity to cryptocurrency issues and that existing rules weren’t designed with such trading in mind. For his part, Giancarlo says Congress should review state oversight of digital coins and trading platforms as the state-by-state license system “may have shortcomings.” You can read their full prepared remarks embedded below.
It would appear the crypto crowd is not lovin’ that. Bitcoin fell below $7,000 in Coinbase pricing on Monday afternoon:
Meanwhile, China now says it will block all websites (and this includes foreign portals), related to cryptocurrency trading and ICOs. This is part of Beijing’s efforts to stamp out the last vestiges of cryptocurrency speculation.
Bottom line: this is about over folks. Or at least that’s what it’s looking like.
Bitcoin has declined 64% since December 17, the longest and largest correction since the 85% decline from 2013-15. $BTC.X pic.twitter.com/DEn6wibKga
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) February 5, 2018
Clayton
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