Good afternoon and welcome to our rolling coverage of all things cryptocurrency, including price, regulation, innovation and financial crime.
A week of dreadful losses sees bitcoin prices tumble down close to $6,000 a coin, as investors struggle to rally.
Bitcoin fell another 4.31 percent to trade at $6,155.74, a loss of just under $1,000.
The rest of the market has suffered from bitcoin’s slump too, with Ethereum losing 11.74 percent on the day to trade at $318.76.
Ripple lost 11.11 percent to trade for $0.299337, while Litecoin fell 9.81 percent to sell for $56.61.Bitcoin prices are stagnating as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) debates the approval of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for bitcoin.
Approval of the proposal could see BTC prices skyrocket, but continued uncertainty has seen investors lose confidence.
Analysts predict BTC could plummet as low as $4,000 if the issue isn’t resolved, but is this the end of bitcoin?
Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC in danger of dropping to $4,000
3pm UPDATE: Lawsuit against Ripple denied
On 10th August, a remand filed by plaintiff Ryan Coffey against defendants Ripple Labs, Inc. [Ripple], XRP II, LLC, an ancillary of Ripple, and Bradley Garlinghouse [CEO of Ripple] has been ruled over by the court.
Plaintiff initially filed the patent on May 3, 2018, accusing the aforementioned defendants after investing in XRP.
The lawsuit demanded remuneration for the plaintiff, awarding him for damages caused due to investing in XRP. It also demanded that XRP be subject to the California Corporations Code.
The lawsuit also alleged that Ripple Labs has “focused on how to create, maintain, and increase the value of XRP.” It also claimed that Ripple is not decentralized.
Bitcoin prices have slipped down further today (Image: CoinMarketCap)
13.50pm UPDATE: BTC hits a one-month low
This week’s price fluctuations saw bitcoin prices plummet to a one-month low.
On some exchanges, like the Europe-based Bitstamp, Bitcoin even spent some time under the $6,000 price level, as the order books on that exchange might have been too shallow to handle this influx of sell-side volume.
12.30pm UPDATE: Bitcoin prices could drop to $4,000
A Bloomberg analyst has predicted bitcoin prices could slump to as low as $4,000 should the cryptocurrency market continue to stagnate.
Mike McGlone, a Bloomberg intelligence analyst said: “Bitcoin is in dump mode, following the pump run-up on the potential for a U.S. ETF.
“It may not subside until revisiting good support near $4,000 — last year’s mean.”