The BTC/USD pair has now shed $1,000 following China’s 3rd biggest bank, recently declaring that it shall no longer be allowed for any service or activity even remotely related to the usage of cryptocurrencies.
In related news, Ethereum (ETH) had also experienced a significant loss and is currently trading at just above $2,000 for the very 1st time in almost a month. The intraday low reached by Ether had been $1,976, which had been observed on Bitstamp at around 6:46 AM UTC.
Chinese bank issues crypto warning
As touched upon earlier, the BTC/USD pair recorded new lows of lesser than $32,500 earlier today. The reason behind this drop had reportedly been the result of a statement made by a major Chinese bank, through which it was confirmed that the financial institution would no longer permit the usage of its own services in relation to transactions made in BTC or any other cryptocurrency. The institution in question was the Agricultural Bank of China.
Furthermore, as per the official statement, if anyone is caught using cryptocurrencies in accordance with the bank’s services in any way, shape, or form, then the account transactions shall be immediately suspended, in addition to the termination of customer relationships and the reporting of the relevant departments. While this is understandably a source of continued frustration, we really can’t be surprised at this stage. China has made it a point to try and suppress cryptocurrencies at every level, and the nation has become a source of annoyance and grievance for the entire crypto community.
Capriole’s CEO, Charles Edwards, had called this the largest attack on the Bitcoin network in recorded history.
ETH down by over 20%
Ethereum has experienced a drop of over 20% in the past week alone, thereby being in more or less the same boat as Bitcoin in terms of losses. Furthermore, various other altcoins have also taken a massive blow, with DOGE trading at around $0.25, ADA trading at $1.32, and XRP’s price being around $0.70 as of right now, to give a few examples. Overall, the cryptocurrency market has now decreased to $1.3 trillion.
As aforementioned, the Chinese authorities are mainly to blame for this recent development, as the government’s ongoing crackdown does not appear to be letting up anytime soon. It is widely considered to be the primary cause of everyone’s woes lately, as pressure continues to mount on the crypto market.