Cryptocurrency Crash: Take a Chance or Take a Bow?

Cryptocurrency has enormously increased in popularity since Bitcoin was introduced in 2008. Some people and various institutions have seen its potential to become the future of the world market. It’s not that hard to fathom as several factors, particularly, its promise of anonymity and security, have proven how valuable it can be compared to actual money.

But as it grows widespread, so does the scrutiny that goes with it. One main selling point of the Cryptocurrency is that it is decentralized and no one, nor any government holds the power to run it. But that doesn’t mean that it cannot be regulated. That is exactly what several governments have now come to realized.

The United States seemed to have now followed suit as it already started discussing the regulation for Cryptocurrency platforms as it seeks to salvage the plummeting stock market. Claiming that all it seeks is to ensure the well-being of virtual investors, like it does with the traditional market. However, with the Cryptocurrency already becoming too erratic, regulating it can become nothing but disadvantageous.

Banning and strict regulation of the Cryptocurrency didn’t occur until after five years of its existence. It all started with Thailand in 2013, wherein its government prohibited any transactions involving Bitcoins – whether sending from inside the country, nor receiving from other States.

Within the same year, China banned the use of the virtual currency as well, claiming that Bitcoins can most likely be another way to fund terrorism, with its impossible security and total independence from any governing authority. China, shot down the virtual currency by refusing to allow anyone in its territory to have access to the Cryptocurrency market. This doesn’t just include transacting with your friend within the country, it means buying anywhere else in the world if your IP address says China is impossible. China has made sure to scratch investing in the virtual currency off from every resident’s list.

After a super power has prohibited the Cryptocurrency, it became too easy for other countries to follow in its footsteps. The succeeding year, Russia banned Bitcoin as well. The countries that has banned the virtual currency now include Vietnam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Colombia, and Nigeria.

Bitcoin, the first and probably the most trusted Cryptocurrency, has already shown how unpredictable the virtual currency has become, from having a record high value of $19,000 in December 2017, to falling to just about $6,000 in the first week of February 2018. It came as a surprise since the Cryptocurrency market just had over $835 billion in January first week, but now tremendously dipped to just about $278 billion. With such a great closing value for the year 2017 and a promising start for 2018, virtual investors have yet to close their slacked jaws on the sharp decline of the Cryptocurrency, with the first quarter not even through yet.

An estimated over $500 billion is said to have already been lost due to the erratic nature of the Cryptocurrency, which can only be the beginning as several governments are now poised to follow in the footsteps of the US with its discussion for regulation. With the US at the verge of deciding on the fate of the Cryptocurrency market, the value of the virtual currency just continues to plummet.

The current trend in the banking industry isn’t helping as well. Banks around the globe seemed to have united against the Cryptocurrency as one by one, they have now started to alienate the popular virtual currency by preventing its clients to purchase or invest in it using their credit cards. Among said banks are Llyods Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, and MBNA, as well as Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Capital One and Discover. Some banks won’t even accept loan applications once it has been discovered that Cryptocurrency investment is the applicant’s primary source of income. Hell, even Visa has terminated an agreement with a Cryptocurrency credit card provider. And as if that’s not enough to subdue the virtual currency market, various companies such as Stripe and Microsoft have stopped accepting Bitcoins as payments and has prohibited any transaction involving such currencies.

With commercial companies, banks, and world governments shutting out virtual currencies, it’s no longer just an unwarranted fear for the entire Cryptocurrency market to collapse on itself. Because when there’s no way to use your virtual money, then there’s really no use in acquiring it.

But before you start selling out on your virtual investments, try not to forget how erratic Cryptocurrency is in the first place. If it can fall so hard, it can also get back up just as easily. Some would even say that the plummets in value is just a part of the whole virtual currency market, and that if it follows market trend, a tremendous rise in value is already nearing its turn.