Daily Times

Prices of major cryptocurrencies continued going downward on Saturday amid regulatory concerns. As of 1245 hours GMT, bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, shed 5.89 percent to reach $38,675. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of the BTC has reached $723 billion.

Likewise, ethereum (ETH) shed 9.76 percent to reach $2,436. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of ETH has reached $282 billion.

Similarly, XRP shed 16.52 percent to reach $0.946. The market capitalisation of BNB stands at $94.5 billion after this decrease.

Furthermore, Cardano (ADA) price dipped to $1.55 with 8.99 percent decrease in its price. Its market capitalisation has reached $49.6 billion with this increase.

Likewise, dogecoin (Doge) shed 9.84 percent to reach $0.353. With this decrease in price, the market capitalisation of Doge reached $45.7 billion. Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H Summers compared crypto to gold as a safe haven asset. “Crypto is here to stay, and probably here to stay as a kind of digital gold,” Summers said in an interview. “There’s a good prospect that crypto will be part of the system for quite a while to come.”

Still, he doesn’t expect consumers to turn to bitcoin for most of their payments, even though it could become an important part of e-commerce.

In the meantime, volatility in bitcoin is likely to stay elevated. The selloff on Friday last once again pushed bitcoin below its average price over the past 200 days, which to some technical analysts suggests it could trend lower still to around $30,000, where it found support earlier this week.

This week’s swings have led to huge liquidations by leveraged investors and damaged the narrative that cryptocurrencies will become more stable as the sector matures. Musk’s actions showed how just a few tweets can still upend the entire market. But even more so, the past few days have renewed the regulatory threat on the crypto market.

“Investors are underestimating the regulatory risk of crypto as governments defend their lucrative monopolies over currency,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive of Infrastructure Capital Advisors in New York. In the US, the possible imposition of transaction reporting requirements could be the “tip of the iceberg” of potential Treasury rules on virtual currencies, he said.