Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies suffered another blow this Friday, followed by other major coins such as ether and doge.
Bitcoin was trading at $35,292 at 8 a.m. ET and had dropped almost 9% in the previous 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The world’s most popular coin has been attempting to rebound after a week of volatility that saw its price plummet by 30% to approximately $30,000 last week.
On Wednesday, it briefly surged back above $40,000 before losing those gains.
Altcoins such as ether and doge also followed suit. Ethereum’s price has dropped over 12% in the previous 24 hours to $2,426 per coin, while the price of dogecoin has dropped roughly 8% to 3 cents.
The debate around cryptocurrencies is still raging. Last week, Goldman analysts published a 41-page report in which they discussed whether Bitcoin and Ethereum could be considered asset classes or not.
The recent price drop comes only a day after Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of Ark Investment Management, suggested that bitcoin had a place in the area of deflation. She believes that outperformance in bitcoin will come from emerging nations, where currencies are generally strongly connected to commodity price cyclicality.
“I think what will happen as their currencies come under pressure, the velocity of their money will increase as more and more of their populations shift into bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies and assets,”
Wood said at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference on Thursday.
The crypto sell-off last week followed moves by authorities in China and the United States to strengthen cryptocurrency regulation and tax compliance. Chinese officials have asked for tougher control of cryptocurrency mining and trade, reiterating measures published in 2017, while the US Treasury has said it would need stronger crypto compliance with the IRS.
Following mounting worries over bitcoin’s carbon impact, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on Monday that he spoke to bitcoin miners in North America about renewable energy alternatives, which helped to recover bitcoin price. In other news, hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio stated that he owned bitcoin in an essay published on Monday.
