Bitcoin drops 11% as South Korea moves to regulate cryptocurrency trading

Bitcoin fell on Thursday in a week that has seen the cryptocurrency seesaw following a major sell-off at the end of last week
The latest moves came as the South Korean government said it would implement new rules to regulate cryptocurrency trading
Cheang Ming | @cheangming
Published 6 Hours Ago Updated 1 Min Ago
CNBC.com
Broken representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency, placed on a monitor that displays binary digits, are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. Bitcoin drops amid new regulatory concerns
Updated Moments Ago | 01:53
Bitcoin fell on Thursday, marking the latest gyration following a major sell-off at the end of last week.

The cryptocurrency fell as low as $13,672.16 on Thursday — an 11 percent decline compared with the beginning of the day, according to leading industry site CoinDesk. At 3:42 p.m. HK/SIN, bitcoin had ascended back to $14,233.60.

That remained above the low of $10,400 it hit last Friday amid a session of highly volatile trading. There had been no immediately apparent explanation behind that fall.

The latest moves came as the South Korean government announced it would implementing new rules in a bid to regulate trade in the digital currency in the country. South Korea is a major hub for bitcoin.

Those new regulations would include prohibiting anonymous trading accounts and could give authorities the ability to shut down exchanges, Reuters said.

Earlier on Thursday, the head of the country's financial regulation agency told reporters that the "bubble in bitcoin will burst later," local news agency Yonhap reported.

Still, not everyone is spooked by the tougher rules.

Cedric Jeanson, CEO of trader BitSpread, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday that he believed the move was "quite positive" and "normal" for regulators.

— CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.

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