January 30th is the day Bitcoin surprised many and went below $10,000 for the first time in weeks. The reasons for that were obvious – the US regulators’ scrutiny into Bitfinex which is one of the biggest cryptocurrencies out there and its digital Tether.
As Bloomberg reported, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sent subpoenas to both Bitfinex and Tether (which is the firm behind a digital token directly linked to the value of US dollar) and used for trading among exchanges globally. According to Tether itself, the company is worth $2.3 billion in tokens which are backed by USD reserves.
Both Bitfinex and Tether did not discredit the news of the subpoenas. In a statement to Bloomberg, they said:
“We routinely receive legal process from law enforcement agents and regulators conducting investigations. It is our policy not to comment on any such requests.”
This has sent Bitcoin to a 13-day low of $9,900 today. Even though the price of Bitcoin is currently (at press time) somewhere above $10,000, the news hit the leading cryptocurrency in a bad way.
It is safe to say that January is not the best time for Bitcoin, especially after South Korea’s new trading rules taking effect and this issue. Traders hope that there are less cases like these in the future – but who knows, right?
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