Bitcoin “Black Friday” Crash Continues, Plunges Another 14%

At the end of the week, during the celebration of Thanksgiving Day in the USA and “Black Friday” around the world, crypto investors have forgotten about the holidays and shopping: they were selling off their digital assets. The fall is not so impressive at the moment, but it is methodical and consistent – that deprives the few remaining crypto enthusiasts of faith in a miracle. Over the past 24 hours, the benchmark Bitcoin (BTC) has lost more than 14%, trading around $3,750. The XRP token was also under selling pressure and had lost almost 17%. The Ethereum (ETH) quotes had dropped by 15% to $104. The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) had declined more than 20% and now is trading around $189.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is partially blamed for its slow work with the approval of new instruments, as well as for the actions against ICOs and crypto exchanges. Recently it had become known that the US Department of Justice initiated its own investigation of Tether due to possible manipulations of Bitcoin prices at the end of the last year. Now fears are growing among investors that future crypto market rally attempts would be perceived as manipulation and cheating.

In the meantime, the main cryptocurrency that works on the basis of mining faces a new danger: the “cross of death”. In the context of Bitcoin, we are talking about prices decline below the cost of production. This can provoke a reduction in interest in mining in general and the beginning of this process is already initiated. Bitcoin hash rate had already sunk for more than 12% from its historical maximum following the shutdown of ASIC miners in those regions where the cost of production was critically higher than the current BTC rate.

In theory, if the course of Bitcoin continues to decline down to $3,500 and below, we will see a significant decrease in network capacity which could eventually lead to a technological collapse. At the moment there is a clear awareness:  miners need not only electricity for the existence of Bitcoin but also an uninterrupted growth of its value which is actually impossible. The fundamental base cannot grow as fast as the speculators demand.

This article was written by FxPro