Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have struggled for the past few weeks as brutal crackdown on crypto in China worsens (this is where you can stay one step ahead of the market).
Bitcoin price plummeted in May, losing 50% of its value, and has been under pressure ever since. Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, has fallen by more than half, with Ethereum price struggling to keep above $ 2,000 per Ether token.
After reports from former Bitcoin and Ethereum miners dumped GPUs in China, suggesting that at least some of the decommissioned Chinese mining capacity will not return, analysts warned that crypto prices are “in jeopardy”.
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Bitcoin, Etheruem, and other cryptocurrencies have been fighting back since reports of China’s crypto raid … [+]
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Chinese Bitcoin and Ethereum miners offloading CPUs “No surprise given that China has taken serious action against Bitcoin mining in the country, but the development can still be interpreted as fundamentally bearish,” Adam James, managing editor in Hong Kong-based bitcoin and crypto exchange OKEx, wrote in its latest analysis, adding that “market sentiment has dropped significantly in recent days”.
Meanwhile, reports have surfaced on social media that China has started blocking access to major cryptocurrency exchanges. This week users reported that Huobi and Binance temporarily needed a location masking VPN for access.
Binance, the world’s largest Bitcoin and crypto exchange by volume, has been battling global regulatory crackdowns for the past few weeks, with the US and countries across Europe stepping up their scrutiny of the exchange.
China’s crackdown on bitcoin and crypto mining last month forced those using high-performance computers to secure the bitcoin network and validate transactions outside the country. The expulsion of Bitcoin and crypto miners from China has brought Bitcoin’s hash rate, a measure of how much computing power is fed into the Bitcoin network, to a 13-month low in the past two weeks.
The Ethereum network has also been hit by China’s crypto mining ban, as its network hash rate has dropped about 20% since May when the miners were shut down.
After falling below $ 30,000 in recent weeks, Bitcoin price leveled off just above psychological levels, but the failure to sensibly reclaim the lost ground since the May crash has worried many crypto market watchers.
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Bitcoin price fell sharply after a huge rally in the first few months of this year, … [+]
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“There’s a summer lull in the crypto market that could just be the calm before the storm,” FxPro senior financial analyst Alex Kuptsikevich wrote in email comments, warning that if Bitcoin drops below $ 30,000, “Probably a new wave of liquidation.”
“If the market is affected by a small number of open positions, any small storm could turn into a big sell-off, disrupting an avalanche of stop orders. But what is most worrying for crypto enthusiasts is that such an outcome” becomes the lingering nature underline the correction and increase speculation about a new ‘crypto winter’ like in 2018. “
