Will South Korea’s Attitude toward Cryptocurrencies Spread?
Bitcoin has steadily fallen in price since the holidays began, but it looks stationary from yesterday. Bitcoin prices have been almost flat over the past 24 hours.
Dec. 29 2017, Published 12:53 p.m. ET
Comparative performance
Bitcoin has steadily fallen in price since the holidays began, but it looks stationary from yesterday. Bitcoin prices have been almost flat over the past 24 hours. They touched $15,270 on December 29 6:30 AM EST and were trading close to $14,627. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is close to $245 billion.
We can compare performance for Bitcoin (GBTC)(ARKW) and the S&P Index-CBOE (SPX INDEX)(SPX). The volatility in Bitcoin seems way higher than in the SPX Index. The equity market’s volatility can be measured by the CBOE VIX Index (VIXY)(VXZ), which was at 10.2% on December 28. The day-to-day volatility in Bitcoin was at 110%. While Bitcoin has given a return of 47% over the last month, the SPX Index delivered a gain of 2.1%.
Other cryptocurrencies
After Bitcoin, the other two top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are Ethereum and Ripple. They’ve increased 2.4% and 34.9% over the last 24 hours, trading at $731.9 and $1.8, respectively. However, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin saw a down-day, falling 7.9% and 4.2% to trade at $2,402.7 and $241.3 sequentially.
Lacking intrinsic value?
The negative impact on the top cryptocurrency was most likely due to the South Korean Financial Services Commission prohibiting cryptocurrency exchanges from issuing new trading accounts. The government also can take action to either stop trading or shut the exchange entirely.
After South Korea, the Indian government is also comparing cryptocurrencies to Ponzi schemes, claiming they lack any intrinsic value as they’re not backed by an asset. India’s Supreme Court called on the government to develop a framework for regulating the flow of Bitcoins in the country.
