The leading crypto was trading down 9.7% at $32,318 a coin as of 07:05 GMT. It’s the largest single daily loss for bitcoin since May 28. Other major cryptos were also trading in the red on Tuesday, with the top 10 by market capitalization having fallen between 7.3% and 12.9% over the last 24 hours.
Analysts point to an increased crackdown on bitcoin trading and mining in China by way of explanation. Over the weekend, Chinese regulators blocked a number of cryptocurrency-related accounts on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
“China continues to pressure crypto, with rolling mining bans wiping out its most popular social media platform, Weibo, clean of crypto influencer accounts,” Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Kenetic Capital, told Coindesk. “This signals a tightening noose around crypto on the mainland.”
Investors are also following the possibility that the US Federal Reserve could start to unwind from its liquidity-boosting quantitative easing program, with some claiming that the monetary policy is unlikely to affect crypto and gold.
The news that the US Justice Department has “found and recaptured the majority” of the cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline to its hackers to regain access to the system has also been closely watched by investors.
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