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Altcoins suffer double-digit losses in marketwide meltdown.
Anxiety has washed over the crypto market, while cascades of selling push prices down to the same levels as before Tesla announced its Bitcoin treasury allocation.
Tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk have been widely blamed for giving the market jitters, which turned to full-blown fear as China called for a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading. The leading cryptoasset dropped to hit nearly $30K on the news, before bouncing back to over $35K.
Pulling Bitcoin down further, the U.S. Treasury called for stricter rules for crypto, and multiple exchanges suffered outages amidst the volatility. This caused carnage that swept over the entire market, with most altcoins flashing double-digit losses, and BNB and XRP falling around 50% over the last seven days.
This week’s highlights
- China warns of crypto crackdown
- U.S. Treasury seeks to toughen tax rules
China warns of crypto crackdown
Bad news from China will be a familiar theme to veteran traders, as announcements from Beijing sparked similar sell-offs in 2013 and 2017.
Nevertheless, news of China’s intentions to “crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading” hit the market like a ton of bricks. Rumors quickly spread that miners were preparing to leave the country, and selling both mining equipment and large amounts of Bitcoin.
At the same time, several market commentators were quick to point out the potential upside of the situation. MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor tweeted that “a crackdown on miners in China would radically reduce the carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining” and would support progress towards sustainable solutions.
