Bitcoin’s price dropped on Tuesday (16 November) along with cryptocurrency prices across the board just days after the world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a new record high of $69,000 in value on 10 November.
The crypto ‘crash’ comes as China reinforced its clamp down on cryptocurrency mining and transactions in the country, which Chinese banks and regulatory authorities declared to be illegal in September.
Bitcoin’s price has fallen by almost 8% at the time of writing (1.45pm) on the last 24 hours, with a further blow coming as US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected global investment company VanEck’s proposal for a exchange traded fund (ETF) underpinned by Bitcoin.
But why is crypto down today?
Here’s why Bitcoin’s price dip has led to falling prices of Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, XRP, Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin and how much they are worth today.
How much is Bitcoin worth today?
On Tuesday 16 November, Bitcoin’s price was trading down by roughly 8% on the last 24 hours at $60,600.03 as of 1.50pm, according to Coinbase.
The major cryptocurrency’s price has seen recent gains of more than $8,000 wiped off the board for Bitcoin after it came the closest it ever has to reaching a new landmark threshold of $70,000.
After climbing in value to $69,000 at 2pm on 10 November, Bitcoin’s price had fallen to $64,292.43 as of 10pm the same day.
With its price currently down 10% on last week’s value, the cryptocurrency saw another sharp fall on Tuesday morning as it dipped from $63,676.80 at 11.30pm on Monday to $58,638 at 10am on Tuesday.
Crypto data aggregator, CoinMarketCap, recorded a 7.5% fall in Bitcoin’s market cap – currently fluctuating at around $1,144,011,933,611 – and a 66.03% increase in 24 hour trading volume as of 2pm.
Why is Bitcoin down today?
Bitcoin’s bullish price rise to near $70,000 in value came as investors hoped to see the $1 trillion market cap remain firmly in place ahead of a volatile trading period.
But its fall came after it was reported that Chinese regulators had reiterated their pledge to clamp down on crypto mining operations in the region in a press conference on Tuesday.
According to Bloomberg, a press conference by a National Development and Reform Commission spokesperson, Meng Wei, announced the agency’s plans to take further action against industrial-scale mining and any potential state company involvement, following further pressure on state authorities to crackdown on state involvement in crypto mining.
On Saturday, a Chinese official, Xiao Yi, a former vice-chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was disciplined by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for reportedly participating in illegal crypto mining operations in China.
And despite reports on Tuesday 26 October that US regulators are looking for new ways and strategies for banks to hold crypto assets and address their current rise, the SEC recently rejected VanEck’s proposal for its own Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Future (ETF).
The SEC cited fears over “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” in the cryptocurrency market as the basis for its rejection of VanEck’s futures proposal, mirroring that of the successful ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF.
Bitcoin futures ETFs are designed to allow investors to make trades on futures contracts and away from the usual means of crypto exchanges like Binance, which have come under greater scrutiny from regulators worldwide.
Through crypto ETFs, investors can speculate on the future cost of cryptocurrencies without having to actually hold it themselves.
What are the prices of Ethereum, Shiba Inu and Cardano today?
With cryptocurrencies often moving in tandem with Bitcoin, Ethereum, the cryptocurrency synonymous with the rising crypto trend of NFTs, was trading down more than 7% on Tuesday after hitting a new record high of almost $5,000 last week.
Ethereum’s price was fluctuating at around $4,316.19 at 2.30pm on Tuesday – down from $4,842.54 at 6am on 9 November.
The hype surrounding popular memecoin Dogecoin had appeared to diminish recently as new altcoins took centre stage.
Shiba Inu coin is trading up at approximately $0.00005060 (£0.00003769) as of 2.30pm today after smashing through multiple record highs in late October.
Dogecoin, meanwhile, was trading down by approximately 6.5% on the last 24 hours at $0.24 (£0.18) on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA) prices are fluctuating around $1.93 (£1.44) in a 6% fall on the last 24 hours, XRP was down 7% at $1.11 (£0.82) and Solana at $226.32 (£168.16) as of 2.35pm on Tuesday.
When was the last major crypto crash?
In June, the Chinese Government cracked down on considerable crypto mining operations taking place in the Sichuan province and demanded that Chinese banks and payment channels stop supporting decentralised and anonymous crypto transactions.
This saw Bitcoin prices tumble to below $30,000 in a dramatic plummet from its soaring success.
The cryptocurrency has continued to rise and fall as other global administrations and regulators mull legislation to curb increased crypto activity often attributed to laundering and crime.
Following the Chinese state’s move, countries like South Korea also pledged to tackle the rise in money laundering taking place via cryptocurrency, while the Metropolitan Police announced that it had successfully closed in on a huge UK cryptocurrency money-laundering operation.
July saw the Met seize a cryptocurrency operation valued at £180million in the UK’s largest cryptocurrency seizure to date.
In turn, cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Binance have been feeling the heat across the world as regulators and governments have started to pay close attention to the operations of such platforms in the wake of the global crackdown on crypto.
The result of this saw Bitcoin’s highest prices sliced in half in June, with the coin struggling to break out of the low to mid $30k price range until it received a welcome boost from Tesla founder Elon Musk in his appearance at major Bitcoin conference in July.
The bullish rise and increased confidence in Bitcoin will likely see it remain at prices fluctuating between $60,000 and $70,000 but with increased resistance as it looks toward a $100,000 price prediction in 2022.
