For the first time since its rally began, bitcoin accumulates a drip that continues for a month. The falls reach the rest of the cryptocurrencies.
The meteoric rise of bitcoin in 2017, close to 1300%, included several phases of sharp correction, with drops of over 20%. But the subsequent reaction hardly took a few days to start a new rally.
Unlike previous corrections, bitcoin has started 2018, deepening the falls with which it ended 2017. The bearish path continues for a month, an unprecedented situation last year, and exceeds the threshold of 40%. This collapse reduces its capitalization below the barrier of 200,000 million dollars.
Behind this fall there are several reasons. The first one is the seasonality that affects cryptocurrencies. In the same way that there was a fall at Christmas, now it is beginning to be due to the proximity of the Chinese New Year in which investors take money to buy gifts. In addition, in the first month of the year, the so-called Effect of January occurs in cryptocurrencies, but in reverse. Normally there is a belief that prices rise in the stock market in January (something that the data deny, but the myth exists). However, in cryptocurrencies the Bitcoin has always fallen during the month of January, to later go up in February and March.
Bitcoin fell as much as 15 percent on Tuesday and touched a four-week low below $ 12,000 on fears of a regulatory offensive in South Korea.
Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said banning the cryptocurrency trade remains an option, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Dong-yeon considers that the government should evaluate a set of measures to suppress the madness of the investment in cryptocurrencies "irrational".
These words disturbed investors and the price of the best-known virtual currency plunged to USD 11,230 according to the Coindesk site and USD 11,191 in the Bitstamp exchange based in Luxembourg.