Bitcoin price: Why is crypto down today? Crypto news and prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Shiba Inu and Cardano

The cryptocurrency market was down by 5.68% on the last 24 hours as of 9.50am UK time on Monday, according to Coinbase, with Bitcoin trading down by 3.7%, Ethereum down 5.7% and Solana down by almost 10%.

Here is why the crypto market is down today and the latest prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, XRP, Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin.

On Monday December 6, Bitcoin’s price is down by approximately 3.5% on the last 24 hours at $47,628.30 (£36,030.68) at 10.24am, according to CoinDesk.

The crash below $50,000 came in the early hours of Saturday morning, as Bitcoin’s price plunged from $52,315.97 at 4.30am to $42,333 at 5am – shedding almost $10,000 in half an hour before bouncing back up to $47,844 by 6am.

The sudden plummet in the cryptocurrency’s price was echoed by a $1,100 fall in Ether’s price on Saturday.

The major cryptocurrency’s price has seen recent gains of almost $15,000 were wiped off the board for Bitcoin after it came the closest it ever has to reaching a new landmark threshold of $70,000 last month.

After climbing in value to $69,000 at 2pm on November 10, Bitcoin’s price fell to $64,292.43 by 10pm the same day.

Bitcoin’s bullish price rise to near $70,000 in value came as investors hoped to see the $1 trillion market cap remain firmly in place ahead of a volatile trading period.

But it’s fall below $50,000 comes as US and UK markets have struggled with renewed concerns over Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, as well as high inflation.

As a result, Bitcoin’s price was down 17.7% on the last seven days, according to Coinbase, with a 13.5% fall in its 24 hour trading volume on Monday at $35.4 billion.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell by almost 200 points last week in a 2.72% fall as fears over Covid restrictions and the potential for another Christmas lockdown loom over markets worldwide.

The FTSE 100 was up slightly today by 0.77% on the previous close as of 11.10am on Monday.

Bitcoin’s price fall over the last month has represented a long-awaited pullback from investors testing the strength of support below the higher thresholds for the coin and to stabilise risk incurred by rising inflation and President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill’s impact on cryptocurrency trading in the US.

The Infrastructure Bill, signed into law by the US President on Monday 15 November, contains provisions that could see cryptocurrency brokers or exchanges have to declare the names and addresses of their customers alongside cryptocurrency gains and tax requirements on businesses or exchanges receiving more than $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency or digital assets.

This week, however, has also seen further signs of concern in global markets – with the Indian Government proposing cryptocurrency regulation legislation which would prohibit all private cryptocurrency holdings.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency bill drafted by the Indian Government has seen fears of a crypto ban swell in the country, where Bitcoin’s price dropped in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Such moves to regulate the cryptocurrency market come several weeks after the Chinese Government reiterated its ban on cryptocurrency mining and crypo-related transactions, which it declared to be officially illegal in September.

And despite reports on Tuesday 26 October that US regulators are seeking new ways for banks to hold crypto assets and address their rise, the SEC recently rejected VanEck’s proposal for its own Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Future (ETF).

The SEC cited fears over “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” in the cryptocurrency market as the basis for its rejection of VanEck’s futures proposal, mirroring that of the successful ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF.

Bitcoin futures ETFs are designed to allow investors to make trades on futures contracts and away from the usual means of crypto exchanges like Binance, which have come under greater scrutiny from regulators worldwide.

Through crypto ETFs, investors can speculate on the future cost of cryptocurrencies without having to actually hold it themselves.

With cryptocurrencies often moving in tandem with Bitcoin, Ethereum, the cryptocurrency synonymous with the rising crypto trend of NFTs, was trading down by more than 6% on Monday after hitting a new record high of almost $5,000 in early November.

Ethereum’s price has now dipped below its $4,000 threshold – fluctuating at around $3,947.16 (£2,975.84) at 11.13am on Monday – down 8.30% on the last week when it was trading at approximately $4,300 on November 29.

The hype surrounding popular memecoin Dogecoin has likewise diminished recently as new alt and meme coins take centre stage.

Dogecoin was trading down by approximately 9% on the last 24 hours at $0.16 (£0.12) on Monday morning.

Shiba Inu coin, the so-called ‘Dogecoin killer’ is meanwhile trading down by roughly 11% on the last 24 hours at approximately $0.00003300 (£0.00002490) as of 11.17am today after smashing through multiple record highs in late October.

Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA) prices are fluctuating around $1.26 (£0.96) in a 9.13% fall on the last 24 hours, XRP was down 9.39% at $0.75 (£0.57) and Solana at $178.67 (£134.53) as of 11.20am on Friday.

In June, the Chinese Government cracked down on considerable crypto mining operations taking place in the Sichuan province and demanded that Chinese banks and payment channels stop supporting decentralised and anonymous crypto transactions.

This saw Bitcoin prices tumble to below $30,000 in a dramatic plummet from its soaring success.

The cryptocurrency has continued to rise and fall as other global administrations and regulators mull legislation to curb increased crypto activity often attributed to laundering and crime.

Following the Chinese state’s move, countries like South Korea also pledged to tackle the rise in money laundering taking place via cryptocurrency, while the Metropolitan Police announced that it had successfully closed in on a huge UK cryptocurrency money-laundering operation.

July saw the Met seize a cryptocurrency operation valued at £180million in the UK’s largest cryptocurrency seizure to date.

In turn, cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Binance have been feeling the heat across the world as regulators and governments have started to pay close attention to the operations of such platforms in the wake of the global crackdown on crypto.

The result of this saw Bitcoin’s highest prices sliced in half in June, with the coin struggling to break out of the low to mid $30k price range until it received a welcome boost from Tesla founder Elon Musk in his appearance at major Bitcoin conference in July.

The bullish rise and increased confidence in Bitcoin could see it remain at prices fluctuating between $60,000 and $70,000 in future, but with increased resistance as it looks toward a $100,000 price prediction in 2022.

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