Friday 6 January 2017

Bitcoin price plunges by a fifth

Bitcoin price plunges by a fifth


Bitcoin price has been on the rise for some time now and most including myself, thought this ride would continue for a long time. The ride took the high ride of a roller coaster from January 1st this year and had an all time high for the second time in its history on the 4th of January, 2017 going for $1149 to a bitcoin then falling within two day by $250 which is about 5% of its previous day price.

This rise would have continue for reasons I had stated in my previous post but it took a dive just today due to a meeting this week between  the People's Bank of China (PBOC) with representatives of its major bitcoin exchanges in China to urge their compliance with "relevant laws and regulations". BTC China, OKCoin and Huobi  - all exchanges in China - accounts for the bulk of the world's bitcoin volumes, according to data from Bitcoinity.

An informal translation of the document reads:
"Bitcoin is not a currency and shouldn't be viewed as such. Those who invest in bitcoin should accordingly be aware of the risks it poses and protect their investment."
The public statements aimed to serve as a reminder to citizens who may be considering the digital currency as an investment, and both quoted a government circular released in 2013 saying that bitcoin is a virtual good and doesn’t have legal tender status.
Pete Rizzo (2017): http://www.coindesk.com/ China's Central Bank Issues Warnings to Major Bitcoin Exchanges.

China is not new to the world of currency controls especially if it has to do with its people and its currency. They have been known to devalue its currency time and again to keep its currency cheap and enable its manufacturers, manufacture cheap but sell high to foreign countries. This was important to increase their GDP and move them to a world power position but now that they are seeking the world’s acceptance of its Yuan as a rival to the dollars. They wouldn’t want her people to use more of another currency causing its value to decline in use and value. 

This again shows the vulnerability of Bitcoin as a currency. As it has been accepted around the world, the numbers game would come to play. The country with the highest volumes can control the price for the rest of the world due to its currency policies like China has shown. Bitcoin may not be controlled by the Government of China but they can influence its price by the control on their people and currency causing the laws of demand and supply to kick in and cause bitcoin's price to either go up or down, causing the rest of the world to simply accept the new price. So brace up, we would most likely see some more of this in this new year.

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