Displaying items by tag: bitcoin

(Washington)

The SEC has just made an announcement that those in financial industry, and beyond, were waiting for. That announcement was that the SEC has now all but grounded all hopes of having bitcoin ETFs. There has been a remarkable amount of hype about the chances of launching bitcoin ETFs in the hope of getting more mainstream investors involved in the asset class. However, the SEC dashed those hopes, saying “Until the questions identified above can be addressed satisfactorily, we do not believe that it is appropriate for fund sponsors to initiate registration of funds that intend to invest substantially in cryptocurrency and related products”.

FINSUM: This was effectively an unsolicited warning not to try to shirk investor protection rules in efforts to create bitcoin ETFs. It looks like the SEC is taking a hard line here.

(New York)

A few weeks ago bitcoin was trading at over $20,000 on some exchanges. No it is trading below $9,500. Critics of the cryptocurrency are taking the big fall as vindication of their view, while others are sticking to bitcoin. Other cryptocurrencies slid big too, with ethereum and litecoin both falling around 30%. “The crypto craze is morphing into a crypto crash, from Bitcoin mania to Bitcoin bust”, says a trading analyst, continuing that “that there is no level at which value players step in” when a bubble is bursting.

FINSUM: One of the big problems with bitcoin, as opposed to say the cotton bubbles of American history, is that there is no fundamental underlying economic value of the currency, so there is no potential bottom other than zero.

(New York)

The end of the exciting but short-lived Bitcoin era may be upon us. As everyone will know, the cryptocurrency surged this year by around 2000%, from $1,000 up to $20,000. However, after worries and threats of regulation, bitcoin has fallen back steeply and is now trading at around $10,000 or just half what it was a few weeks ago. One prominent fund manager commented on bitcoin that “Having no clear fundamental value and largely unregulated markets, coupled with a storyline conducive to delusions of grandeur, makes this more than anything we can find in the history books the very essence of a bubble”.

FINSUM: It is next to impossible to forecast what bitcoin will do, but it should be noted that the cryptocurrency has bounced back from 50% drops before in this big rally.

(Seoul)

We have been warning that one of the big risks for bitcoin is the threat of regulation, and today that prognostication is looking true. The cryptocurrency plunged yesterday after South Korean regulators took steps to shut down the trading of bitcoin on the country’s exchanges. The government views trading of the currency as akin to gambling. Bitcoin fell as much as a quarter in South Korea and over 13% on global exchanges. It is now trading between $12,000 and $13,000.

FINSUM: Bitcoin is an interesting asset class, but because it operates in a gray area of legality, it is fraught with extreme regulatory risk.

(New York)

The comment heard round the world seems to have been eating JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Several months ago Dimon made the much publicized comment that Bitcoin was “fraud”. The CEO is one of the most respected on Wall Street and the comments have been the bane of the cryptocurrency for some time. However, speaking at a conference yesterday, Dimon said about his statements that “I regret making them”.

FINSUM: The funny part of about this new statement is that it was accompanied by several more veiled expressions of dislike for bitcoin, such as saying he is “not interested in the subject at all”.