Bitcoin tanked again on Tuesday and fell below $30,000 for the first time since late January as China escalated its crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
China further curbed mining activity and told major payments platforms and lenders that crypto trading won’t be tolerated.
Bitcoin (XBT) plunged 12% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has lost roughly half its value since it hit an all-time high in April. Other cryptos were also caught up the big sell-off: Ethereum fell about 14% while Dogecoin dove 26%, erasing all of its gains since April.
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Cryptocurrencies have had a rough couple of months for a few reasons, including concerns about the environmental impact of mining coins and increasing government scrutiny.
Crypto continues to catch a lot of heat from China, which has for months been signaling a more aggressive push to curtail use of such currencies.
The People’s Bank of China on Monday said it summoned Alipay, the widely popular online payments platform run by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, along with five big lenders and told them to “comprehensively investigate and identify” cryptocurrency exchanges and dealers so they could cut off any crypto trading.
CNN
