Bitcoin price dives down in more than seven weeks, mere days after reaching a record high, marking the biggest single-day drop since February 2021.
The news prompted experts to speculate that the drop is the beginning of the anticipated burst, after believing that Bitcoin's bubble has reached a critical point.
Bitcoin Price and Speculations
On Apr. 17, 7 a.m. ET, Bitcoin's price fell 10.8% from $61,396 to $54,750, reaching as low as $51,300 as it dropped to more than $7,000 in one hour.
Bitcoin reached a record high of $64,869.78 on Apr. 14, a day before cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's debut on Nasdaq.
Meanwhile, Ethereum's price dropped to almost 18% after reaching a record high of $2,550.
According to Bloomberg's report on Apr. 18, the plunge is caused mainly by rumors of the U.S. Treasury's probe on money laundering done via digital assets.
Others believe that the price drop may have been an after-effect of "excess leverage," and that the Bitcoin bubble is about to burst, which may send panic to the crypto currency market similar to what happened in 2017.
An executive from the World Economic Forum (WEF) warned that Bitcoin would be hit by another set of regulations that could impact its price.
"We're going to see another round of pretty dramatic attempts at regulating this space," said Sheila Warren, WEF executive committee member and head of data, blockchain, and digital assets.
"As there's more and more activity in these spaces there's more and more demand signal for regulators to get engaged and involved," Warren added.
Bitcoin Hashrate Drop Blamed on China's Grid Blackouts
The Bitcoin network hash rate had slipped down to more than 49% since Apr. 15, after reaching a record high of 218 exahash per second.
A report from Bitcoin News published on Apr. 18, said that the drop is attributed to the grid blackouts in Northern China as they undergo safety inspections.
Dovey Wan, a founding partner at Primitive Crypto, said that the Bitcoin hash rate dropped instantly to 30% after news of a major power outage in Xinjiang province due to a coal mine explosion.
Optimism in Bitcoin
Despite the number of warnings from financial experts about the Bitcoin bubble, many companies continue to put their confidence in the world's largest cryptocurrency.
Major companies such as Visa, Paypal, and Tesla had started accepting payments in Bitcoin, with the latter investing $1.5 billion to buy around 48,000 units of the cryptocurrency.
Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia, Starbucks, and Burger King Venezuela had also announced their collaboration with various cryptocurrency platforms to test and accept Bitcoin as payments.
Even Goldman Sachs is paying close attention to Bitcoin as they set their eyes into offering a "full-spectrum" of investments in digital assets.
CEO David Solomon said that as of the moment, Goldman Sachs cannot offer support for cryptocurrency as a principal due to regulatory uncertainties in the United States.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Lee Mercado
