The cryptocurrencies continued their fall with a new series of losses on Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) thwarted hopes that a Bitcoin exchange fund would appear before the end of this year.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, plummeted to 8.2 percent, moving beyond $ 3400 (R48150) to the lowest level since September 2017, based on consolidated prices compiled by Bloomberg. The broader Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell 8.4 percent while rival chips, including Ether, Litecoin and XRP, also fell.
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to decide before February 27 whether to approve a proposed ETF from financial technology company SolidX Partners and asset manager Van Eck Associates, the agency said on Thursday.
The proposal was established to obtain a decision from the SEC in December after previous delays and the new schedule is a new blow for an industry in which prices fell throughout 2018. A key impediment has been the lack of an adoption institutionalized, together with continuous security and safety. Regulatory concerns
“The sentiment in the market is really bad, any negative news has an exponential effect,” said Timothy Tam, co-founder and CEO of CoinFi, a cryptocurrency research firm.
According to Bloomberg calculations, with the latest loss, Bitcoin has now fallen more than 80 percent from its historic high of a year ago and is trading at 50 percent below its 200-day moving average, the more since January 2015. The cryptocurrencies have erased nearly $ 730 billion in value from a peak in January, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.