After a bumpy start this year, the criptocurrency seems to be recovering

Last year, Bitcoin profitability was impressive. In early 2017, bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was trading around $ 1,000 dollars per unit. By December 18, the value of bitcoin was estimated at $ 19,800. Furthermore, in January 2017,  the World Market Cryptocurrencies was 20,000 million and by December of the same year it was 300 billion dollars.

However, after these results, 2018 began badly for this market. Just one month after reaching its peak, on 18 January of this year, the share price stood at $ 9,800, which means bitcoin lost nearly half its value in just one month.

Regulations

A series of regulations, which have been imposed on these assets, are the culprits that the confidence of investors has diminished. US bank Merrill Lynch was one of the first entities to prohibit their financial advisors to operate with Bitcoins related investments for their clients. This measure was the beginning.

For the second week of January, South Korea announced its plans to veto the trading of cryptocurrencies, which added to the intentions of the Chinese government to block the platforms of virtual exchange, led to a drop in investor confidence and the price of the virtual currency.

In addition, South Korea decided to step up regulations to restrict the use of anonymous bank accounts for trading cryptocurrencies. At the same time, in Japan, 523 million dollars were lost in NEM due to a cyberattack to the exchange platform Coincheck.

Then, India ceased to consider virtual currencies as bargaining and China has incorporated – within its large firewall – web searches related to cryptocurrencies.

Also, the measure of the Asian giant was concreted shortly after US banks such as JP Morgan, Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup forbade their customers to acquire cryptocurrencies with their credit cards.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the measurement of Facebook, when it decided to remove ads related to virtual currency, as well as those who promoted ICOS. The decision of the social network was another setback that pushed the currency value to the range of $ 9,000, toward the end of January.

Recovery

However, after all these obstacles, the most popular cryptocurrency of the world has risen more than 42% in the last 12 days. The growth is due to a wave of positive news that has overshadowed some of the regulatory measures launched in recent weeks.

The price of Bitcoin was entering positive territory since Thursday 15 February, rising 5.33% and reaching $ 9,732 dollars. Meanwhile, in the session on Friday 16 February, Bitcoin came for brief moments to be above $ 10,000 dollars.

Among the good news, that have reached the digital currencies world, is the announcement of Coinbase Inc. This will launch a service for merchants to accept payment in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, government officials said that South Korea would focus on making digital currencies trade transparent rather than ban it completely.

Latin American Post | Daniel Ramírez Pérez
Translated from “Bitcoin: ¿Lo peor ha pasado?”