2017 was a great year for Bitcoin. Its value increased from 1000$ to 19,700$ in 12 months.
Many experts were predicting that Bitcoin will cross the mark of 20,000 by the end of 2017 . However, Bitcoins value started to decrease on December 16, 2017
So far, Bitcoin has lost more than 50% of its value.
In this post, I'll shed light on the top 3 reasons why Bitcoin is falling in 2018.
1. A Domino Effect
This trend started at the end of 2017 when Bitcoin value was dropped from 19,700$ to 13,857$ in 1 week.
So far, Bitcoin has more than 50% of its value and the major reason is Mt Gox. This notorious Bitcoin exchange was hacked back in 2014 and around 800,000 Bitcoins was lost in this hack.
Additionally, Mt Gox filed bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2014
Mt Gox was able to recover around 200,000 Bitcoins and they kept it to pay off their creditors.
Recent developments indicate how a Mt Gox trustee revealed that they sold around 400 million USD worth of coins between December and February. Mt Gox trustee sold 35000 Bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash during this period.
Mt Gox trustee stated :
“I plan to consult with the court and determine further sale of BTC and BCC."
Now the worrisome part is that this same person has around 180,000 Bitcoins. If he sells more Bitcoins in the market, it'll be a point of no return.
2. Major Countries Banning the Cryptocurrency Trading.
In January, South Korea announced the temporary ban on Cryptocurrency trading and said they will lift the ban once all exchanges in their territory will meet the regulatory criteria.
In late 2017, China also banned the Cryptocurrency trading in its territory. As South Korea and China are the major Cryptocurrency markets, these decisions adversely affected the market.
3. Tech Giants Facebook and Google also banned the Cryptocurrency advertisement.
Facebook announced its new Ads policy in January that included banning the advertisement of ICOs .
Similarly, this month, Google banned the Cryptocurrency advertisement on its platforms.
On the contrary, Tech Giant “Microsoft” officially started supporting Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash as a payment option
We will have to wait and see what will be the future of Bitcoin.