Already Down 50 Percent, Will Bitcoin Bite the Dust?
Talk about a fall:
“Prices of virtual currency bitcoin fell 20% Wednesday and are now down more than 50% from their record high hit two weeks ago amid worries that China is moving to block the purchase and use of the currency by its citizens,” The Wall Street Journal writes.
Bitcoin’s big slide began two weeks ago, as we reported, when Chinese authorities told banks there that they couldn’t trade in the currency. Officials were worried, NPR’s Frank Langfitt reported, about a lack of control over bitcoins that “makes it easier to launder money and finance terrorism.”
Wednesday, MarketWatch writes, “BTC China, the biggest bitcoin exchange in that country,” announced it has “temporarily stopped” accepting yuan deposits into bitcoin accounts. The news followed reports that “the People’s Bank of China had a meeting on Monday with about 10 major third-party payment processors and ordered them to stop working with bitcoin exchanges.”
More: Already Down 50 Percent, Will Bitcoin Bite the Dust? : The Two-Way : NPR
For those not getting the “U buy Krol?” reference, it was also once a highly valued virtual thing that deflated.
